Devil Survivor Grand Strategy
by longherin
Summary: Devil Survivor but with the premise of 'what if there is no 7 day fix'. Thanks to everyone who pointed out the correct Megami Tensei categorization.
1. Day 0, Start

Before we begin: Dialogue denotations.

"{Sentence}" means that the protagonist does not understand that spoken sentence (or does not understand enough of it to matter).

"[Sentence]" means that the protagonist understands it to a level where he can respond to it.

_Italics _on their own lines indicate actions or events that are occurring outside of the Protagonist's perception or without his caring to mention. It uses 'we' since doing a hard jump between first person and third person every other line is even more jarring.

{ === + === }

[13:00 (1 PM), Day Zero, Tokyo]

FUCK YEAH VACATION!

WOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO

FUCK YEAH JAPAN!

YEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEAH

FUCK YEAH LACK OF JAPANESE LANGUAGE!

Yaa…ay?

Ahem.

Today is the third day of my two-week-long vacation in Japan, as a sort of celebration of successfully completing my bachelor's degree. Barely squeaked by, too, since I'm not much of a studious personality.

Good on my parents to finance this trip, really, offering to pay for half of it if I could do the other half.

…I've always had a…well, I won't say a 'fascination' with Japan, but certainly I'm…

…fuck it, I'm a huge nerd weeaboo. I love my anime and my (things to be unmentioned here). Might as well own up to it.

Though…I will say that Tokyo in reality is a lot more boring than Anime Tokyo. To be expected, really, but still. Maybe I need to be in Shibuya for things to get weird. It seems like Shibuya is always the target to make things weird. A lot more crowded, too.

_Vrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr._

My phone goes off. Let's see here…

…? Nothing. Must've imagined it.

…

[14:00 (2PM)]

…

I woke up rather late, at noon, so only now have I both eaten and finished lunch (overpriced hotel plastic food). This trip also included a translator, but it doesn't look like he's here right now…it's a good thing this tourism district has everything in Japanese and English, so I can kind of point and go 'that'.

I've watched enough anime to be able to pick up on basic conversation, but I don't have the confidence to just…y'know, strike up a conversation. I'm a bit self-conscious.

…

_Ten minutes later._

…

Oh, there he is, though I feel like he's a bit overdressed for the situation.

_The translator is a young man (almost 20) with silvery blonde, spikey hair. He wears cream-colored cloth pants, a breezy short-sleeve T-shirt, and a red vest. Clipped to the vest is an ID that reads 'Akihiko Sanada' in both Japanese and English._

"Good afternoon, Ash!" He says with jovial and slightly stilted English. "Did you sleep well?"

I nod. "My jet lag is almost gone."

His laugh suggests that he knew it was a joke but not the content. "That's good to know." He looks at his itinerary. "We have some things we can do today. Are you…interested?" The pause was him searching for words.

Sanada is, as he introduced himself, looking to get into some detective work, which is why his agency(?) has him volunteering as a translator this summer to help him brush up on his English. Or, at least, that's what I gleaned from our conversation. I could be very wrong.

Sanada, along with a band of friends of his, are small-time stars due to a series of movies they starred in. They were…cult hits, I think? I binged them on the flight here and they were ok. Kinda weird to have people shoot themselves in the head with guns as a gateway to incredible summoning powers, but I won't judge.

Anyways, he leads me onto the metro and into Shibuya.

_Vrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr._

Again?

…There's nothing on my phone. Though it is notable that apparently everybody who had their phones close with them also checked them at the same time.

Akihiko's looking at his phone, too. "{I half-expected an alert or something}." He mutters, before catching me looking at him. "Yours too?"

"Apparently." I shrug and go through my list of installed apps. Maybe there's someone doing some weird shenanigans that I don't know about.

…?

There's an app I never installed before. It looks…like a book? Weird.

_It is uninstalled._

There's no name on the app either, so it's probably a virus or some kind. I might have to do a factory reset just in case. Hrm.

_No new phone shenanigans come as the two of us enter Shibuya in earnest._

Akihiko shows me around some of the stores—dude is really, _really _into ellipticals, it's kind of disconcerting—and we just generally have a good time.

After an hour of playing tourist, we get to sit around a little bit.

"Thirsty?" Akihiko hands over…oh hey, ramune. I gladly take a bottle because it's actually quite hot here. "How did you like Shibuya?"

"It's busier than I imagined." I profess. There really is a lot of people and a lot of them don't seem to like me very much. Is it because I'm Chinese? "It's very lively." Or maybe it's just because I'm bad at reading faces.

"Glad to hear it." His phone goes off (only his phone) and he checks it. "Oh, a friend of mine is nearby, can you wait here?" He asks. "We can go together."

…sure? "Ok." I take a seat on a…what do you call it, a barrier? The big concrete slabs that are used to separate the sidewalk from the grass.

…I'm actually drawing a blank here, wow.

_We're distracted from thinking about proper pronouns to the point where we don't notice someone walking up behind us._

"[Um, excuse me!]" I hear behind me and instinctively turn around.

There's some dude with a laptop in a bag and a very weird-looking hat. He gets style points for having a pin on it in the shape of a power button. "Can I help you?" I answer in English to show that I am a Foreigner.

"Ah, uh…" He looks taken aback. "I want to ask you a question." He says. Pretty damn fluent, this guy.

A girl's voice sounds from behind him. "[Atsuro! What are you doing?]" So his name is Atsuro, eh?

"[Just give me a minute, Yuzu!]" He replies to this 'Yuzu' person. "Did your phone ring today?" He asks me.

…I feel like he's asking about something specific. I nod. "There were no messages or phone calls, just a weird app like a book."

"[App?]" He frowns. "[I'm not quite sure what that means, but] did you delete it?"

"Yeah." I nod again. "Did you get it too?"

He pulls out his phone to show me. "A book."

"{Atsuro! Stop messing with this guy and let's get a move on! We're already late!}" 'Yuzu', I think, comes up to me and bows slightly. "[I'm sorry, but we must be going]." She's cute. Redhead ponytail, tanktop…incredibly red eyes that are actually kinda terrifying.

"{Don't blame me for having natural curiosity.}" Atsuro says with a shrug. I assume it's biting because Yuzu just smacks him upside the head. "[Ow!]"

Are all redheads violent. "Can I help you?"

"{Oh, no, my English isn't very good.}" Yuzu…panics, I guess. "{Atsuro, tell him that we're leaving.}"

Atsuro just looks at me. "Sorry." He scratches his head. "We're leaving. [Let's go, Yuzu.]"

…so why did he ask me about my phone? Was he the one that caused it?

…no, right? It felt more like he was worried than not. What about, though?

_Vrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr._

Speak of the devil.

This time, the book is back, and it has a name! It is…the "Devil Compendium". I recognize one of those two words, and…I assume this is a joke. A really stupid one, probably.

Hmm…well, worst comes to worst I'll just do a factory reset.

_We open the compendium._

The UI is trash, the text is tiny, and there is no picture. There is only one entry inside the 'compendium', the demon "Dagger".

…I…I recognize that I abuse the hell out of that name whenever I'm playing 4X games but this feels a _wee _bit much. The entry of it says "A knife enchanted with the grudges of its holder, however minor." It is considered a "ghost", an "entity", and an "emotion". I imagine it also knows how to stab things and has cut more than its share of fingers when preparing food.

…I guess. I don't understand why it's here or what it's doing here, but…sure.

_Vrrrrr._

While looking at this…thing, a new message pops up. It's an anonymous text message. It reads…it…uh. "Fsitnairsth." Which…

…I feel like this would make more sense if it wasn't just standard text over a standard messaging app, but whatever it's supposed to be, it sounds stupid.

I'm more worried about the fact that there's no sender at all, and it definitely wasn't marked as spam. Hrm.

…

After about ten more minutes, Akihiko comes back with that friend of his. His friend is…a year younger, ish, with blue hair that slightly covers his eyes. He looks perpetually tired, which is something I can relate to.

"Let me introduce you." Akihiko says. "This is my friend, Makoto Yuki. [Yuki, this is Ash,] {I'm guiding him around Shibuya per my part-time job.}"

Yuki just nods. "Good afternoon." He says. His voice is soft and a bit hard to hear. I think I've seen him before, though.

"Yo." I give him a small wave. "Was he in the neighborhood, Akihiko?" I am curious.

"This seems like a good chance to…uh…be friends." Akihiko says with a small frown. I think he missed the sentence he wanted to say. "I hope you don't mind."

Well, I'm just here to be shown around. "Sure, let's go together." Not like I'll remember who he is after this trip's over anyway.

…

…

I spent the rest of the afternoon with those two, had quite a bit of fun. For all of Yuki's quietness, the dude knows his way around town in a way that may as well be clairvoyant. Also he's a coffee connoisseur, which…in retrospect feels like it makes sense, given his personality.

Either way, it's pretty much dark by the time I make it back to my hotel (dinner was had and it was delicious, largely because it was free). I turn on CNN and…huh. Apparently this weird-ass message has appeared on everyone's devices.

By which I mean, anything that's capable of showing a text display showed the same garbled message that it had before, which is apparently the words 'finish' and 'start' meshed together. The fact that it seemed to be international and, after accounting for time zones, occurred at exactly the same time for everyone has essentially everyone worried.

Well it's got me worried too, so good job there, I guess.

…Does it have something to do with the Demon Compendium? The news did mention the compendium too, but it seemed to be inert for all but a few people, and otherwise seems rather innocuous, so it's on the back burner compared to that mass message.

But…start and finish, huh? What's being started and what's being finished?

…

[Day 1, 0800]

…

Good morning! Nothing has changed since yesterday and…CNN is still on about the message. Well, kinda, It's small time news compared to what seems to be a new serial killer on the loose in Chicago somewhere. Wall to wall coverage.

Well, not like it's my problem, being an ocean away.

…

[Day 1, 1200]

…

At lunch, a cute girl (high schooler?) approaches me. Bob hair, school uniform…Japanese schools have summer breaks, yeah? Or is she doing some of that Asian Over-The-Top prep stuff?

"Um, excuse me." She says. Even her voice is adorable. "Can you help me?" She's holding onto a tablet.

I'm genuinely curious. "With what?" Not often you'd just approach someone and speak a foreign language.

To that end, the girl jumps like she was shocked. "Ah, er, um, I'm sorry!" She bows. "I don't speak English!"

…So why approach someone like that at all?

_We watch as she backs away hastily and target a new table. She and the patron converse for a few sentences before she hands over the tablet._

Like me, she led off with English but switched to Japanese when the guy responded in Japanese.

I'm confused.

_We watch as the girl trips and nearly upends an entire table._

…Now less confused, somehow. I guess she's just nervous?

_Vrrrrrrrrrrrr._

…Huh. All that news about mysterious phone messages has me nervous. Let's see here…"wslotiraflred". So…going by the whole 'words are spliced together format' this would be…world, star, life.

…As far as I can tell that's nonsense, but it may be valuable nonsense.

Either way, I finish my lunch and head out to meet up with Akihiko, who said he was running late today due to some other thing his company wanted him to do.

…And the instant I set foot outside…what gives? A bunch of people are gawking at a there's a big red man standing in the middle of the intersection.

"{What's with that guy? His clothes are strange.}" One Japanese lady murmurs. I imagine she's judging him by the way he dresses. Still, the dude is _huge._ He's very obviously a good head-and-a-half higher than the people judging him. His body is entirely red with lines of dull-pink running down his body. Also he has two large meat-cleaver-like swords the length of his body and I feel like those two things are cop-attractors.

"[How strange.]" The girl next to me says and oh she's from the shop. "{Why is he dressed like that?}"

She…holds up her tablet to take a picture. I am slightly disappointed and heavily judgmental.

…?

Her…Devil Compendium? I guess? Triggered when she took a picture. There's an entry along with the picture, but I can't read Japanese.

Hm. I might as well take my own picture and see what happens…

…ah ha, there we go. That is…that is…a…

Rakshasa? "Evil spirits that battle the gods in Hindu lore. They also attack humans. Their hideous appearance symbolizes their evil nature, but they can also change shape to fool humans." It says. It is defined, like the Dagger, as a 'Jaki', 'Existence', and 'Momentum', except the texts 'Existence' and 'Momentum' are dark red. I wonder why?

More importantly, that Rakshaka is blocking traffic, since it's right in the middle of the street. Cars are starting to drive around it, though, as us onlookers take more pictures. Some guy's streaming it, too.

_As we continue to watch and as the busier onlookers start dispersing to attend to more urgent business, the Rakshasa raises its sword._

Oh, he moved. Is he going to get out of—

_The Rakshaka suddenly swings at oncoming traffic, cutting into and cleaving away the top of the car in a shower of shrapnel and sparks. The driver on the inside is also decapitated, but his blood is rather hard to see given the situation._

HOLY SHIT

_The Rakshaka begins to attack in earnest. There's a brief pause, and then the crowd begins to panic and flee._

That thing is just attacking everything around it woah

_We get knocked on our ass by the rapidly scattering crowd, along with the girl and many others._

Uh

Uh

What do I do FUCK

_Someone steps over our hand as they rush away_

ON MY FEET NOW

_We do a reverse roll and get on our knees. There is a scream._

Somebody just stampeded over the girl's left arm.

_We scramble over hurriedly to the girl. Meanwhile, the Rakshasa has moved on from cutting down cars to cutting down people, and is steadily moving forward in our direction._

The girl's clutching her arm and her eyes are squeezed shut and she's whimpering. "Hey!" I grab her shoulder, making her flinch. Her eyes snap open and lock onto me in fear. "Get up!" I try to drag her up to…uh…tell her what I want her to do, since I'm sure if she understood.

Fortunately (or unfortunately) by now we're basically alone as the Rakshasa moves further and further away, chasing down a group of densely packed civilians. The road is basically clogged with immovable messes that used to be cars, and I can hear the faint sound of a police siren in the distance.

The girl, now a little bit calmer, lets me drag her to her feet and the two of us move away from the Rakshasa, towards the diner we just came out of. As we get closer, a waitress inside the shop opens the door and hurriedly beckons us inside.

"[What was that thing?!]" She asks us. Well, she asks the girl. I turn to watch the Rakshasa face off against the police.

"[I don't know.]" The girl says with a shake of her head. She's still quivering. I see gunshots.

I hear gunshots but the Big Red Man doesn't seem to slow down at all.

_The Rakshasa, completely immune to physical damage, cleaves a policeman down the spine._

Not at all. I move a little away from the windows just in case it turns around and sees us.

…Shit, ok, what just happened? What was he…it? What was it doing here? Why did it show up in the compendium? Does that mean it's a demon? What makes a demon? Why is it attacking people?

Ok, wait, wait. Calm down. Asking too many long-term questions is not useful right now. For now, I need to figure out if that thing can be stopped at all, in case I run into more of them in a dark alley somewhere.

_Behind us, the waitress is soothing the girl, who's sobbing in her arms, while the other customers—about thirty people—hide underneath their tables. There's a little bit of conversation here and there, but it doesn't register for us beyond noise._

More cops have showed up, but it doesn't help. That Rakshasa's movements are simply too fast. It's crossing distances between cop cars without so much as a pause, and its absurdly powerful blades tear and smash through everything they touch.

…Add that to the fact that it seems to be unstoppable by guns and we're basically stuck in a shit situation. Maybe the compendium can tell me something more…

…Ah ha, more data has showed up. Where before the Rakshasa UI only filled out the top 1/3 of the page with its one-liner description, it now has…

…a row of…are these icons? A row of icons and text underneath it.

Well, uh…lessee here…the top row of icons has some element vibes to it…fire…wind…more wind?...hm…

The second line are little texts, one of them is 'null', and the other is 'weak'… 'weak' is underneath the ice icon, so I assume that means the Rakshasa is weak to ice.

By that logic, since it pinged guns, the 'null' underneath that weird sharp thingie must be 'physical' or something similar. There are no other marks, so I assume that means it has no offsets against…whatever the rest of these are.

So, if it's weak to ice, what can be done here?

Can I just throw some ice on it? How much ice do I need?

The girl behind me seems to have gotten her bearings. "{I think this says that the thing out there is weak to ice.}" She says, staring at the tablet.

…well, ok, fine, it's not *her* staring at the tablet, it's the waitress holding on to her. Still.

Speaking of the Rakshasa, it seemed to have been led away by prey running on the streets (and the cars) and has moved beyond our line of sight.

…On one hand, I should run away.

On the other, I know that, if I were to let it go without seeing it dead, it will haunt my nightmares for at least the next three months, and _fuck _my sleep's already too poor for that.

…Still, the target's now away from the field, so we should probably get out of here before it either comes back, wanders over back, or some other weird shit shows up.

…Field is clear, yes?

_Outside the restaurant, there are hints of movement. People who were trampled were now either getting up or crawling away._

…Let's see if there's something I can do to help out there.

_We get up and leave the shop._

…

[Day 1, 2000 Hours]

…

Eventually, the Rakshasa vanished. Nobody knows where it went.

Reviewing footage from CNN (taken from a mixture of shaky videos and police chopper cams) and sporadic translated dialogue shows that at least one person in the Japanese police had a Devil's Compendium and a level head, since eventually there were calls of it being 'weak to ice'. A firetruck was called and sprayed the thing with water. After that, it vanished.

Understandably, Tokyo's a wee bit on edge right now.

My parents are of course also on edge, and they pretty much called this afternoon since…well, we have family in China, they caught wind of the news, called my parents in America, who called to Japan.

…I guess "called" may not be entirely accurate given this day and age, but you get the idea.

Worryingly, though understandably, similar issues with these…things…popped up all over the world. Social media is going nuts: Tokyo, Beijing, Moscow, Manilla, DC, Buenos Aires…

…The fact that every hit city so far has been a national capital is definitely not lost to the talking heads, and there's a lot of chaff and misinformation going up already. Initially there were cries of this being a Russian Conspiracy, but then some large spider-like entity showed up in Moscow, decapitated its ruling body, and then basically murdered its way through the government complex before it was put down by very dedicated gunfire. Notably, it was more than a match for an armored car, which…was concerning.

After that attack, Japan's ruling body basically went into lockdown, with the building being guarded by Japan's military and ad-hoc dispensers of liquid nitrogen.

Hmm.

…

[Day 2, 0500 hours]

…

As expected, sleep didn't come easily. If the clock in my hotel room was any indication, I got something like two hours today. Woke up in a cold sweat, too.

…well, it's not like I can sleep with my nerves frayed like this. Maybe some TV.

_Except we literally do not move and just lie there on the bed for another thirty minutes._

It's so comfortable and yet so not comfortable at the same time.

It's just getting bright outside, too. There's not much of a view from this hotel, but appreciate the sunlight.

_Suddenly, things go dark._

…which just ups and disappears. The heck?

_We get up and pull back the blinds._

Looking up at the sky, it's very, very difficult to tell exactly what's going on up there.

However, I think I see something that resembles a giant flying snake and I feel like I am justified to be a little bit concerned.

Or, better question.

_We take out our phone and snap a picture._

Ok, cool. It is known as 'Seiryu'. I don't know how to feel about this.

_As we're watching the underbelly of Seiryu over our head, there's a loud CRACK at the bottom of the window._

FUCK what the hell was that

_There is a crawling zombie slapping its hands on the window. It doesn't look at us, just slaps on the window._

…Well it's the zombie apocalypse. Let's take a picture of it.

_Click._

This is a 'Forgotten'. It is described as the 'amalgamated body of those who's been lost to time'. With the traits of being a 'Fallen', 'Aspect', 'Momentum', with none of the texts in weird red color.

It is also incredibly creepy and I'm very surprised I haven't screamed in terror yet. Must be because I'm still bone dead tired.

…Also it seems rather incapable of breaking through the window. It is basically just smacking the window as hard as it can without really using its arms, just its wrists.

Either way, what the hell?

_We turn on the TV._

…yeah, shifting through some news channels between Japan, China, and the US…zombies are literally everywhere. The streets of New York all filled with shambling zombies and people using blunt instruments on the heads of those zombies. When the coverage isn't on the zombies, it's on 'Seiryu' in the sky. Russia apparently sent Flankers up to shoot some missiles at it, but there were no explosion or damage of any kind.

…huh.

_One of the Japanese news channels show not just zombies, but demons of all sorts descending and rising from the ground, the air, weird portals, everywhere._

…This is bad. Like, really bad.

_As our attention is taken by the TV, a big green thing with a big spiked club show up outside the window, stomp the zombie out of existence, and then raise its club…_

FUCK

_The glass shatters and scatters into the room._

What…gah, that cut me up. Ow. That's an ogre. That's definitely an ogre. Everything from that green body to that horn to the club makes it an ogre and CLUB

_We scramble from the bed and roll down, hitting our head on the table in the process. The club wrecks the bed._

PISS

_Now fully awake, we scramble away from the bed to the front door and wrestle it open. Still on the ground, we scramble out of the room and then slam the door closed._

Ow, god, I'm glad I'm not bleeding. Ugh…my head throbs.

I hear stomping inside the bedroom which is probably a GREAT time to get my ass out of here while I still can.

…I don't have anything on but my underwear, shirt, and phone.

_Behind us, there's a wooden CRACK as the ogre's club break down the door. It forces its way through the scraps a moment later._

WHY ME?!

_In front of us, another tenant in the hotel bursts through his open door, chased down by what looks like a wolf._

WHY CAN'T IT BE JUST ME?!

_Without enough time to change directions, we run smack into the wolf and bodyslam it off of the person._

UP UP UP UP

_We grab the downed tenant and haul her to her feet._

Both of us dash past the downed wolf (she kicks it again for good measure) and we let the Ogre and wolf sort themselves out. As we dash down the hall, the roars indicate that 1) both of them hate each other and 2) they're not the only ones here.

I hate everything right now.

A few more paces, and we're now at the front landing. I have never been so glad as to pick a first floor room as right now.

_In front of us are the hotel concierge getting their heads bashed in by more Ogres._

Nope, fuck that, I hate it. I hate all of it.

_BEEP!_

The phone in my hand lets out a shrill 'I'm a computer with no audio card' chirp, and the Ogres all stop to look at me.

Despite myself, and likely because I'm just beyond done at this point, I look at my phone.

The 'Devil Summoner Program' just activated. The display on my phone is a simple magic circle of some sort.

_The Ogres start moving towards us while the remaining alive front desk lady huddle into a small ball and cover her head. Our eyes are still glued to the circle._

Summon mode, active. Demon in deck…Dagger. When I get out of this alive, I will ask why.

_We press the circle._

"Come to me!"

_A little itty-bitty knife forms and floats in the air before us. It is, essentially, a fruit knife._

I…was expecting something a little more visually impressive, not gonna lie. That said, it's a flying knife, so…uh…shoot!

_We grab the knife and hurl it towards the ogre. It sinks into the muscular torso and seems to do absolutely nothing._

In retrospect I don't know what I expected. The Ogres, now angrier (probably), charge at me.

Which means that it is now the best time to run.

_So we do: we head for the open sliding front door and out into the dawn._

It is…far brighter, yet far darker, than it has any right to be. Over my head is the giant flying…thing, and silhouetted against the buildings are occasional flashes of flight and errant gouts of flames. Shards of ice, bolts of lightning…

_As we continue to run, a nearby office building, a small box-like concrete structure, explode upwards with a blast of energy that sends glass and shards everywhere._

YIPE

_We hit the deck as glass showers both us and the Ogres that have chased us out of the hotel._

Judging by the roars behind me I assume I'm between a rock and a hard place. But first let's take a picture because that's apparently what passes for good thinking.

_Click._

Ok. 'Ogre', 'Jaki', 'Entity', 'Anchorage', apparently very stupid, strong against fire, weak to all other elements. I don't have any of the other elements so I don't see how this will help.

…Skills, 'Anger Hit', 'Knight Soul', 'Watchful'? What's that about? Anger Hit has a strange blue outline wrapped around its entry, too.

?

_A blue shimmer covers our eyes, and we see, clearly, the three Ogres outlined with two sets of bars on them: one marked HP, one marked MP._

One of them's pretty badly wounded. Is the one I shivved?

Only one way to find out!

"Dagger!"

_A dagger forms in the air in front of us and launches itself into the Ogre's face. Upon the hit, the Ogre jerks back and its head smashes against the pavement._

Hot damn that actually does some incredible damage. "Dagger dagger dagger!"

_Only one knife flies out and strike the second Ogre._

I'm probably paying some kind of cost by doing this. Can I stab with it instead of just using it as a projectile? "Dagger!"

_A new knife flies out._

Alright, lemme just get my hands on it whoa

The instant I grab it it yanks me towards the target, but I have control, so it's all good.

_The ogre raises it club to smash._

No 'dodging at the last minute' business. RUN!

_We back off as the club slams into the ground in front of us._

NOW CHARGE!

_The Orge's slow to recover, so we stab it in the gut about four or five times quickly._

Doesn't seem to do much. The Ogre's retaliation is a roar and a grab, but the telegraphing makes it almost stupid easy to dodge. MORE!

_After dodging, we stab it a few more times._

Rinse and repeat for about four more rounds and it finally goes down with its buddies.

…Ugh. I'm tired and still doped on adrenaline, but I can feel my arms screaming. This is not something I do in my spare time.

Still, the…

…the…there's a weird light coming out from the ogres, and they're dissipating into the air…and some of it is flowing into me.

_Beep!_

My phone goes off. Let's see here… 'skill cracked: Anger Hit'. I now have a…weird-ass layout, this is…three columns of five, four, and two.

I have a low bar for what constitutes good UI design but even I think that looks ugly. At least the extra space was used for buttons. Let's learn!

Anger Hit is now assigned to the top slot in the leftmost column, given that it's described as a 'skill', I assume that means I now have a 'skill'. By that logic, the two other columns would also be for skills…Anger hit sounds like something I have to use, so the other two would be…what, passives? Unless I'm allowed nine slots in total for actives, but that seems too many.

Anger Hit, as this compendium says, deals "guaranteed critical hit to enemy with 50% accuracy". Sounds shite.

…?

_There is now a new app that says 'Summoner Status'._

Oh, that's convenient. Lessee here…

In this status window is a picture of me! My god I am not photogenic. I have…10/40 HP, 10/20 SP, 10/10 MP, 2 STR, 2 MAG, 2 CON, 2 RES, and 2 SPD, with 2 BP glowing softly.

So…I mean, I like my videogames, so…I have a quarter of my health left?! Also I don't know how high stats are supposed to be but 2 around the board seems like it's a bit low. BP is probably bonus points that I can allocate, so…hrm.

STR is probably strength. MAG, magic. CON, constitution? RES, resistance, and SPD, speed. From pure, simple design aspects, strength and magic probably dictate offensive capability, while constitution and resistance dictates defense. Speed, then, is probably a useful glue stat.

Hm. Given that my health is low and that every game in the history of forever seems to make magic auto-hit, it might be in my best interest to pump up my tanking abilities until I can figure out how healing works. To that end, I'll pump con and res.

_CON+1, RES+1, HP+11, SP+5, MP+4. HP: 21/51, SP: 15/25 MP: 14/14_

Neat. Wish I fully healed on levelup, but I'll take what I can get.

…In other news, the violence around us hasn't stopped. People are running out on the streets and…well, actually, some are doing pretty well for themselves.

More of the zombies and other assorted creatures have shown up, but since it's early there's not that many people, so not as many options for mass panic to incite and come into being. To that end, people are grabbing whatever they got and are beating the shit out of the zombie apocalypse.

Props on a little girl wasting a zombie with a trashcan. Like. Seriously.

Ugh…though it looks like we may not be entirely safe, so I might as well shelter in place for now.

…

After returning to the hotel, the rest of the patrons (myself included) sheltered in the kitchen. The hotel's kitchen staff made some quick food and gutted the vending machines for our benefit. In particular, since I had food, my SP hit the cap and then kept going. As we waited for some kind of all-clear, my HP started to recover while my SP overflow went down.

I assume the system is…uh…what's the word. Diminishing returns. Like I can't just eat ten tons of food, overdose on SP, and have infinite HP regen.

…still.

[Day 2, 1000]

…

Considering the circumstances, I should be operating under the assumption that I should have no assumptions.

After the first thirty minutes or so, we all got tired of squatting in the kitchen and went out to the common area and moved some of the bigger couches and chair into an ad-hoc barricade. From there, we could see out the window and that…well, the problem doesn't seem to be decreasing any.

While we waited, some of the people called the local police. Hell, they were probably doing it even before we were waiting. I couldn't make out what they said, but judging by the lack of reassurance in their tone, it wasn't good.

Either way, no help has arrived. Hell, it's gotten worse.

At some point, maybe an hour ago, there was something like a dull explosion, and then in the distance, a plume of fire. Going by the news, a natural gas storage facility was penetrated by some giant flaming bird and blew the fuck up. I imagine it's a Phoenix or something.

I've taken the time to stop and think and sort myself out, and…

I don't know what's going on. The situation is muddled, and is, as far as I can tell, worldwide. Given that there exist demons that can ping bullets, I should operate under the assumption that there are no safe zones in the world.

These…Summoner's App, Compendium, and Status screens are also distributed world-wide. Everyone here on every device has copies of these three apps. These apps also sap battery power like a _motherfucker_ and I will not be surprised in the slightest if these apps will be pivotal to our continued survival…well, or at least my continued survival.

Since I can fight (on some level) I've taken the time to scour the hotel's three stories. The receptionist at the desk speaks broken English, so from her I learned that there is a grand total of 36 patrons of the hotel, of which I am one of them. There's a grand total of 60 bedrooms in this hotel, and it has a max capacity of 90. Apart from us, there are two receptionists and three kitchen staff.

After my foray into the hotel, I encountered only three zombies (stupid easy kills) and 12 bodies. Sheltering in place, not including myself, were a total of 11 other people, meaning that of the 24, at least 12 are confirmed KIAs.

I, being the model citizen that I am, extracted from them their wallets and whatever devices they had with them. I thought about extracting cash from those wallets too, but realistically speaking if we're in a doomsday situation then the value of cash is basically gone, so that's just dead weight.

I collected a grand total of 12 phones (5 dead, 3 broken) and 6 tablets (3 broken), and 3 laptops (1 broken). Dead means I can't get them to boot, and broken means the screen's fucked but it's usable otherwise. I also got my own laptop back and it had not a scratch on it, so that was nice.

Interestingly enough, taking a hold of those devices that aren't my phone means that I've 'captured' them, as their respective statuses show. The statuses also show the names of their previous owners, and are apparently independently accessible from the phone's lock.

Convenient, really.

Anyways, after this 'capture' was finished, the status that was on my phone got duplicated to those on the other devices, and some of the skills held by those devices were 'cracked' into my phone, giving me access to Garu, Zan, Dia, and Amrita.

Garu's a light wind spell, Zan is a light 'force' spell, Dia is a light healing spell, and Amrita is basically Final Fantasy's Esuna—cures all status ailments. Upon realizing what Dia did I immediately popped it on myself for max health, which definitely felt nice in more ways than one.

I don't know what the distinction between a 'wind' and a 'force' spell is, though, so that one's going to be interesting to find out.

It's also worth nothing that, after 'acquiring' multiple devices, I can set one of them to be a 'home' device. Upon doing so, the 'home' device basically switched to what I'm going to call a 'server', because it feels the same functionally. My laptop essentially shows that I have a party of one (implying I can have more) and that my party's current skill share functionality is at a 100%, which means that it will drop if I have party members without the same skills.

After learning this, I asked around to see who wanted to be in my party to the best of my ability. Because culture osmosis exists and the number of videogame players in this hotel is greater than one, more than a few of the people around understood what was going on and registered themselves into my party, meaning that, as of around five minutes ago, I have a party size of eight and a share rate of a whopping 0%.

Since I can apparently dictate which skills get priority sharing from the home base, I chose Dia, then Amrita. Healing is great, especially when everyone can do it.

Sadly, the Home option doesn't cure us of our desperate need of a universal translator, but as long as we stick to common English words, we're able to communicate basic plans. Hurrah for American exceptionalism.

…Though it's worth noting that my laptop's discharging power like mad. The Home option doesn't seem to turn off even if I turn off my laptop, but the data won't update if I do, which means that I should prepare for the inevitable and find a source of power that's independent from an outlet.

…

Anyways, after our five hours of checking base and figuring out what's what, the group consensus seems to be "let's go find the police station" and see what happens from there.

We don't have anything like a hierarchy or even a battle plan, so we leave the hotel with one of the receptionists leading the way (Konoe-san. She lives in the area). I also take point because I can fight, and while everyone else has the tools for a fight, they're definitely not too keen on getting into one.

To be fair, I'm not either, but between dying with people I don't know and dying by myself…I'd rather die having plenty of air to breathe.

…

…

Anyways, Miss…Konoe-san leads us down the very much so war-torn streets towards the nearest police station. I'm just going to refer to all Japanese people with their honorifics because the English honorific system is stupid.

Like why do I have to know if she's married or not?

_Technically this is a complaint coming from 'beyond the 4th wall'._

But yeah, the streets are a mess. My hotel's quite a bit out of the way, so it's pretty cheap and the local area is…not like, y'know, Super Japanese Clean, but still, for it to be torn up to the point where there's not a single building without some part of it being blown off is…unsettling. The smell of fire and smoke makes me want to choke, but I'm too scared to make noise.

_Meow._

FUCK ME that…is just a cat. Ok. Wow, that cat scared the shit out of us. There's a cute little tabby kitten with a cuter bowtie on its back sitting next to…half of what I assume used to be its owner. Given by the size of the body and the type of the outfit, I'm going to say she was in elementary school.

…Perhaps the only saving grace is that her head belongs to the part of the body that isn't here, because I don't think I'd be able to sleep ever again if I saw her face.

One of the group (an older gentlemen) mutters something upon seeing the body, and we continue forward.

Rounding the corner, there are…three Zombies and two…Ghosts? Ghost-like things, hanging over what I assume is another body.

_Click._

The ghost is an 'Uncherished', with the aspects of 'ghost', 'aspect', and 'momentum'. Still don't know what those mean. Also, two more columns of strengths and weaknesses have apparently been unlocked in the past five hours. Given their symbols, I assume they mean 'light' and 'dark' respectively.

Funnily enough, both the zombie and the ghost are weak to light, dark, and the magic circle. You'd think they'd be null dark or something.

Anyways, we're a large group and we can't sneak worth shit, so first strike wins.

"Dagger." I summon in a whisper and it fires itself right into a zombie. I need to learn how to control it. I then…uh, I can use Dia by stretching out my hand so that's what I'm gonna do.

_We stretch out our right hand against the zombies like we're gonna use the Force._

ZAN!

_A blast of cutting energy erupts from our hands and slice into the lead zombie, cutting it down where it stands._

These things have…7 hp? Wow they're flimsy. The one that got stabbed by the Dagger is only down to 4 hp, though.

…So does it just do half damage? Huh. I can worry about it later, I suppose. ZAN!

More blasts of…whatever this is, and all three zombies are down. The Ghosts themselves don't seem to care all that much, and are just loitering about the area.

The zombies emit that same glow that the Ogres had, and…what little light that gets siphoned my way is divided by the members of the party, though the lion's share went to me.

_SP: 20/25. MP: 0/14._

MP regenerates at the blistering rate of 1 point per hour. I hope it recovers faster when I sleep or else magic is going to be in short supply. Or maybe it recovers when I drink something. SP doesn't naturally recover but instead drops at the rate of 1 point per hour unless I eat.

Casting…Summoning? Dagger costs me 5 SP unless I'm at half, in which case it costs HP, as I learned through testing.

Anyways, the zombies are down, but the ghosts are not. The ghosts don't seem to be bothering us, so we're going to leave them along and just…y'know, kinda skitter along the edge.

…?

_As we're skittering along, one of the Uncherished starts to glow._

I'm a little worried as to what's going to happen, so I motion for the group to move along as I rotate to the rear for defense. I don't know why it's glowing so I'm a bit apprehensive.

_As the Uncherished reaches the height of its luminescence, it suddenly and inexplicably explodes into light. The light hovers in the sky for a moment before converging and entering our body._

_Vrrrrrrrr._

Hmm. There's a new app on my phone now. The 'Cathedral of Shadows'.

It would be ominous if it wasn't an app. I should also note that none of the apps have an icon: it's just basically a white space with the name of the app written on it. It's also really hard to read.

Either way, lessee here…like the previous apps this UI is godawful.

_We walk along with the rest of the group and retake our position on point._

Notably, the people who once kind of tried to crowd near me for defense seems to be pretty ok with…y'know, not being so close all of a sudden. Can't blame 'em, really.

Anyways, according to this app, I have…a value of some kind rated at 200. I don't recognize the icon they're using to mark it, and as far as I can tell there's no explanation.

Given how causality works, I suppose I got my 200 points of…whatever this is…from those two Ghosts. Hmm.

_We dick around with the UI some more._

Ok, I think I see what this is about. With this app, I can spend these points of whatever, along with magic power, and then 'something will happen'. I really wish this came with a tutorial because just dicking around with it is kinda useless.

There are two options, by the way: one that I just described, and one that seems to be the opposite of what I just described. Either way, I need mana, and it will be Literally Tomorrow before I get any.

…Actually, do I need mana? I mean, if I shoot a Zan at my phone I think it will have some problems before the app kicks in.

…Uh…huh? Ok? I don't understand this at all? Where's my wiki page for this thing?

I can perform an action that costs 150…plus 20, then plus another 20. The math is written out very clearly as if it's a receipt, but the names for the entries are in some script I don't understand. If I didn't know better I'd call it Sanskrit, but from what little of Sanskrit I've seen this doesn't look like it. Superficial resemblance though, so that's neat.

…In other words, I can pay 190 of my 200 somethings to perform an action from an app I've never seen before that showed up because I absorbed two Ghosts.

…Fuck it, we're already screwed, what's one more?

_We almost click the unnamed button._

Uh, let's take a moment and think this over.

Question: What is the absolute worst-case scenario that could happen if I were to press this button?

Answer: the universe will explode and everyone will die.

If we were to assume that there's a "one in a million" chance of someone getting this app, then that means at least a few thousand people on Earth have it. Odds are, at least one of them have touched the button by accident, meaning that it very likely does not cause the death of the Universe.

Question: What is the most likely outcome of pressing this button?

Answer: Considering the trajectory of previous weird-ass apps, this will likely have something to do with demons. Given that I'm paying a cost of some kind, this app will likely summon a demon.

If it does summon a demon, then it is in my best interest to do it now rather than at the police station for two reasons. One, I could get shot due to panic, and two, the demon could be out of my control and kill everyone, in which case it makes more sense for me to summon it when it has the least bodies to hit.

To that end, click!

_There is a brilliant glow from our phone, and everyone behind us freeze and then immediately back away._

From the light of my phone emerges…a pair of dragonfly-like wings, long, blond hair, little green…leotard? It's a little girl. By little, I mean, it's…she's? basically six inches tall.

After fully emerging from the phone, more of the light envelops the little flying girl and she grows a little more. By the time the light fully dissipates, she's about…a foot, foot and a half?

"[She's cute.]" One of the group says. I agree. She's adorable.

The little fairy meets my eyes, and then she clasps her hands in front of her like a cute little good girl and then bows. "It's nice to meet you, master. I am the Fairy Sylph, and I hope to be of service."

That was…in English. "It's nice to meet you too, Sylph." I say and take a picture. 'A cheerful, mischief-loving spirit that governs air. Since belief in it dates back generations, many have tried to find a real Sylph.'. It has the aspects of 'Fairy', 'Entity', and 'Anchorage'.

There's also an entry of it under my status, too. Level 1, knows Garu and Zan, stat spread of all 4s, with a 6 in magic and 5 in speed. It's pound for pound stronger than me. Not sure how I feel about that.

Either way, it can talk, so… "I'm sorry if the question is weird, but what are you, Sylph?" I ask her.

The Sylph flutters and lands on my shoulder. "I am Sylph." She says quizzically. "A demon of wind?"

…Ok…I kinda got that from the name, the skill set, and the fact that you came out of my phone. "What is a demon, though?"

She shrugs. "I am me."

Hrm, well. "In any case, it's good to have you, Sylph." Am I allowed to pet her head? I have a very strong urge to pet her head.

Her response is to smile kindly and then interact with the rest of the crowd.

…

After five, I have learned the following:

Sylph will only interact favorably with other members registered into my party. She will utterly ignore those the few who are outside of it.

Sylph can speak any language, but cannot act as a translator. So, in other words, I can tell her to 'tell Akito to do a summersault' in English and then she will turn to the person named Akito and say 'do a summersault' in English. Likewise, if I were to tell her to ask Mina what she had for breakfast in English, she will do it in Japanese, and then answer with whatever was Mina's answer in Japanese. In other words, it seems to be impossible for a demon to associate different pronouns onto the same item.

That said, after we taught her what the word for 'apple' was in English and Japanese, she was able to switch between the two when describing it. If there's a fast way to do this I would (since having a translator around would be indispensable) but having to train it without knowing more about Demons feels dangerous.

Either way, I have a little fairy and she's adorable and now I feel immeasurably safer.

_Something black and huge zooms over the group's head._

And now that feeling is gone. What was that?

…Turning around, I can see that the big black winged thing is a giant crow of some kind. It also doesn't seem be going after us specifically, since there's another…rainbow-colored bird with a skull for a face…that's trying to attack it.

Either way, hurrying the fuck up seems to be the order of the day. "Let's go, fast." I say and start picking up the pace.

After another ten minutes of silent near-running, we arrive at the police station. It basically is just a normal two-story building with (what I assume) are the kanji for 'Police station' on the concrete doorframe.

Notably, the patrol cars parked near the door are all damaged and burned. The front door is halfway barricaded with tables and ramshackle bits of furniture. The big windows on the second story are either barricaded with boards (probably nailed down) or else broken away to allow for…three policemen with rifles.

…On one hand, feels kinda weird for Japanese police to have anything bigger than a gun. On the other, we're in a bit of special situation.

Anyways, Konoe-san waves to the police and calls out as loudly as she dares, "{We're looking for a safe place to hide.}"

One of the guarding police nods exaggeratedly and, a moment later, the unbarricaded part of the police station's front door opens to let us in. They, understandably, stop when they see Sylph riding on my shoulder.

Konoe then addresses one of the policemen. "[He's an American, he doesn't speak Japanese.]"

"Who are you?" One of the police says to me. "Are you a tourist? What is that?" He points to Sylph.

"My name is Ash." I say carefully and clearly. "This is my demon, Sylph. She's friendly."

"Friendly…[friendly?]" He says to Sylph.

Sylph nods and replies. "{I listen to the order of my master.}" She puts a hand on my head. Damn, I lost the headpat advantage.

"[Incoming!]" We hear a yell from the second story. Is it the bird from earlier?

The policemen hustle us into the building and lock up behind us. I can hear the hum of a generator, which is probably why the building has power. Apart from us, there are more civilians here, huddling and hiding. Some of them tense when they see Sylph, but she's not visually dangerous so they're not inherently on edge.

I also see someone I know.

"Ash!" It's Akihiko. "Are you ok?" He stands up from the group he was a part of.

"[You know him?]" The English-speaking policeman asks him.

"{Yes, my agency tasked me to be his translator as a part of my training.}" Akihiko says. "What is that on your shoulder?" He asks next.

"This is Sylph." I headpat Sylph gingerly with my finger 'cuz her head is tiny. "She's friendly."

Gunshots ring out and everyone flinches.

Call it a sense of dumbassery, but I immediately make my way for the staircase and go up to check.

Upon arriving at the landing, I can see that the three policemen manning the closest thing to a firing position have engaged a flock of those weird skull-head birds. There are eight birds still in the air.

_BANG_

Seven.

Pull out my phone and…Click. 'Itsumade'. 'Avian', 'Aspect', 'Emotion'. Null force. Strong versus wind.

Well shit, that's kind of all I've got. "Slyph, Garu on those birds." I point to help her home in on her target.

"Yes, master." She spins up a…thing…of wind and shoots it at the birds. It's visually nonexistent save for a small flash of green energy, but the birds are jostled and have to wrestle themselves back into position. The time it takes for them to do that causes them to be sitting ducks, and the policemen shoot them down no problem.

The downed Itsumades also emit energy, the same kind that the Ghosts had, and they flow into the police and into me.

"{Thank you for the assist, little lady.}" One of the shooting police says to us, I don't really know which one due to the lack of a pronoun I can understand.

Sylph bows respectfully, so I assume they're talking to her.

Let's see…my Cathedral score is now 190 out of 480. In other words, Sylph costs me 190 to summon and maintain, and I have a cap of 480 of 'resources' of which I can spend.

Incidentally, it looks like I can use this app to increase the power of Sylph. A more powerful demon will likely result in a higher cost, and I don't want to know what would happen if I go over, so…

Looks like each level costs an additional 5 'resource' to spend. Alternatively, I can teach her new skills at the cost of 30 for an active, 50 for a passive, and 100 for a racial. Hrm.

Well, more base firepower never hurt anyone. I spend 50 of my upkeep to raise her to level 5.

"Thank you for the macca, master." She says, looking a little flushed. "I will reward your trust with my service." So the resource is called 'macca', got it.

After hitting level 5, she gained 4 points of magic, 2 points of resistance, and 2 points of agility. She's a glass cannon in every sense of the word. The upkeep cost has also risen to 230, which is half of my stock.

I've also gained a level, and I'm putting it in Con and Res because I like being alive. My vitals (HP,SP,MP) seems to have adjusted, too, since they're now a league higher than before: 84, 26, and 30 respectively. Sadly, the current values haven't moved an inch, so…my MP cap is bigger but I'm still tapped.

Well…considering the circumstance, it may be in my best interest to summon one more. I assume that the reason why Slyph showed up is because of my garu and zan skills, so if I were to…heal…my phone…I should get a dedicated healer, which sounds like it would be a _great _idea for the future. Alternatively, I can…do a thing with Anger Hit…and maybe get a physical frontliner to compliment Sylph's mostly magical capabilities?

But the biggest dangers we've seen so far are flying. Hmm.

Well given that I'm out of mana and the day's not anywhere close to over, I might as well prioritize a healer first.

…Maybe I should avoid summoning while I'm still here, though, just…just in case something that isn't small and cute show up.

_We have, at this point, moved back down to the first floor with recommends from one of the policemen who came down with us for bandages._

…Or I can be proactive about this. "Hey, Akihiko."

Akihiko seems to be thinking about something and jolts upon being called. "Uh, yes?" I should probably use honorifics so I'm not insulting him.

"Can you tell the policemen that I will be summoning another demon?"

Upon the word 'demon', some of the police look my way. I point to Sylph, then make a +1 gesture with my hands (like literally crossing my fingers to do the plus sign).

"Uh…" Akihiko thinks for a minute then translates for me. "They say, 'if it's not dangerous'."

I nod. "Good deal."

I have 250 points to spend. I'm going to allocate…I probably want to keep a stash left over just in case for emergencies…so let's allocate 150 macca for the base summon, then 20 for dia, and 20 for amrita. I'm going on the basis that the 20 spent before for Sylph was for Garu and Zan.

Ok, and…

_We hustle off to the side of the room, making sure that the refugees as well as at least one police has full line of sight, to ensure minimum confusion._

Cathedral of Shadows, Go!

Like before, the light emits from my body and enters the phone, and out comes…

…Another Sylph. What the hell.

"Hello, I am the fairy spirit Slyph." It says politely. "I see you've summoned a sister of mine." Compared to the original sylph, her long lime hair is tied into a large braid rather than left free-flowing. "I am happy to be of service, master."

…Kind of a let down, to be honest, but on the plus side I don't have to worry about getting shot.

My cost is now…Oh are you kidding me.

240+190 is apparently 480. I am Literally capped. Why?

Let's see here…Sylph #2 is…of a significantly different build than #1, wow. 5. Given her stat spread compared to the first one's spread, I assume this means that magic and agility are something of a racial trait of Sylphs in general. Number two is flimsier and with a _ton _of weaknesses (to fire, ice, and electricity) and a ton of resistances (wind, force, light, dark) but no absorb.

In return, it has Dia, Amrita, and 'Fire Flies', which 'deals very light damage to all targets in area (3 times)." At a significantly higher cost than what I assume normal Fire should be. I assume this is what cost me an additional 50 macca WITHOUT MY CONSENT and from a pure descriptive standpoint feels very underwhelming, but I suppose I should reserve my judgment until I actually see it in action.

"So you now have two?" Akihiko asks for confirmation.

I look at my two shoulder fairies and shrug with my face. "I guess."

The English-speaking policeman grins in my direction. "You look good." I don't know who he's talking to.

One of the officers sitting at a laptop suddenly says something. "{Captain, we've picked up a phone trying to dial into our station.}"

The English-speaking officer replies, "{Did it get patched through the main system?}"

The laptop officer shakes her head. "{No sir, it came from our local patch.}"

He sighs. "Can you help us, Ash-kun?" He asks.

Help? "What kind?"

He turns to Akihiko, rambles off something in Japanese, and Akihiko turns to translate. "There's a group of people out there. He wants you to help them." He gets out a pair of…gloves?

But help, as in a rescue mission? "Sure." I pet my two Sylphs. "We're ready."

"I'm going too." Akihiko puts on his gloves and I now see that they have brass studs on the knuckles. Does this dude do something I don't know about? "We can all help each other." He smiles reassuringly. He's way more photogenic than me.

"In that case, you should join my group." I say and set up my laptop. In the time that we've been here, everyone else has left the party somehow…I should investigate into that further. "Except I don't know how to add you." I say, a little bit shamefacedly, because that's entirely true.

Akihiko walks close to my laptop with his phone and it instantly beeps. He sees a popup box in Japanese, and hits one of the response buttons.

Particles of light from my phone flow to the laptop, then flow to his phone, and then to him. The laptop then gets a popup message that says "Akihiko Sanada has joined the party!" In English.

Let's see here…he's level 1? With 40/10/10 vitals and 6/4/6/3/5 stats. Given my stats changed after a while I assume his will too.

Akihiko gets a notification on his own phone and he pulls it out. "[Oh?]" He frowns at the phone and then shows me his status screen. "This just appeared." He says. Notably, he starts with Zio.

On my laptop, I can see that my skills (Garu, Zan, etc) are being shared with him, but they're all at zero percent for now. Likewise, he's sharing Zio with me, also at zero.

"Interesting." He mutters. "Shall we go?"

We should, but…I don't know if I should leave my laptop here.

.

.

.

{ === + === }

Author Notes:

Yay I'm finally getting this underway.

So, you may have noticed that we're mixing both the Devil Survivor cast and the Persona cast. The total cast roster will be: Persona 3, 4, 5, Devil Survivor 1, 2, plus the protagonist who's kind of stand-off by his lonesome. Since the cast is correspondingly larger, the heads of who represents the law, neutral, and chaos factions are therefore a wee bit different.

**Current Stats:** (Arranged as: Family Name First Name, Alignment, HP/MP/SP, STR/MAG/CON/RES/SPD) only the cap is show for the vitals.

Protagonist: Chaotic Neutral, 84/26/30, 2/2/4/4/2

Sanada Akihiko: Lawful Neutral, 40/10/10, 6/4/6/3/5

Tanikawa Yuzu: Lawful Good, ?/?/?, ?/?/?/?/?

Kihara Atsuro: Lawful Neutral, ?/?/?, ?/?/?/?/?

Makoto Yuki: True Neutral, ?/?/?, ?/?/?/?/? (This is the P3 Protagonist)

**Demon Compendium (Ish).** This section will only cover the demons that are not from the games.

Dagger – Basically the amalgamations of sharp objects that drew blood. Kind of like the legends around blood-drinking swords, but pettier and more of the 'corner of cabinets' style.

Forgotten—Not so much a zombie as more of just a victim. Goes hand in hand with the Uncherished, and is the physical component of every lost human on that land from the current day to the day the first human who set foot on the land. Basically, how many bodies died in car crashes on your local freeway from the day it was first built to today.

Uncherished—Kind of like ghosts, except instead of coming exclusively from the Victorian era and communicating through rattling loose objects they're the combination of the souls of those who have died on those lands from time immemorial. Basically, how haunted your freeway will be so on so forth.

Demons in General—For the purposes of this story, demons trend a little closer to DS2's interpretation, where they're basically just weirdly shaped living things. There's a reason why they're showing up but to clarify why is obviously spoilers at this point in the story.


	2. Day 2, Continue

{ === + === }

I end up not leaving my laptop here.

"{I don't think highly of vigilante action but we need everything we can get.}" The English-speaking officer says. "Follow me, team." He says with a wave. I guess he means us.

The rescue team is myself, Akihiko, the captain, a policeman, and two more civvy volunteers (a husband and wife team in their early 30s).

The captain leads us a little deeper into the police station and opens the doors to…I guess the station's armory, given the equipment mounted in there. Most of the stuff is defensive in nature, so all of us get a bullet proof vest, a helmet (plus plastic visor), and…guns?

"{Do you know how to use this?}" He asks Akihiko first. He pauses for a moment and shakes his head. I imagine he's thinking about all the movies where he puts one such thing to his temple. "Do you?" He asks me.

I nod. I have shot before. Not a lot, mind you, but…y'know, every little bit counts.

The captain's eyebrow goes up at my response and hands me the pistol. It's…uh, a revolver. I would say that "I shouldn't handle a weapon I don't have an experience with" but my only experience is with an auto pistol and that was only for a hundred fifty rounds, so…

The captain shows me how to set the safety and gives me a box of ammo (50 rounds). Loading it is fine, especially since I don't have to wrestle with a magazine. He then leads me to the police station's lone range lane, set up a target at five meters.

…That's basically fifteen yards, yeah?

Um…

_We check our earplugs/mufflers, take a shooting stance and put five rounds downrange._

…Eh. No bullseyes, but no misses either.

The Captain makes a 'eh, good enough' kind of gesture.

Ultimately, we all get armored, but only the police and me have guns, and we head off on our way. Preparation took about ten minutes.

The Captain takes the lead and direct us with a small scrap of paper and a folded map. Judging by the pointing he did before we started, the target position is maybe six blocks away.

For three blocks, there is basically nothing in front of us. We're following a small street down the rows of tight buildings maximized at three stories tall. There's…basically nothing on this road. No cars, no wrecks, no debris, no nothing.

Honestly, as we're walking, we're basically…or, at least, I'm getting more and more antsy. It's too clean, basically.

_And then we turn the corner._

Ah, there it is.

Immediately upon rounding the corner onto a wider, main-er road, we see bodies on the street.

The Captain mutters something. "{We must be getting close.}" He readies his weapon, which makes all of us antsy. I get my gun ready too.

_We advance slower, carefully moving around the bodies._

Upon examination, most of the bodies are facedown, and all seem to be pointing (as in, head away) from the direction we're heading towards. Meaning…they were running away from something. I don't see any physical injuries, which means we're dealing with…well, probably demons.

…Well, one or two of them have large, gaping, circular wounds somewhere on their body, which means we're dealing with something that can throw telephone poles.

I don't know if that's actually true but fuck I'm scared so I don't care.

A little further ahead, and…what the fuck is that

_In front of us is the entrance to what could be a kid's playground, but the various pieces of architecture are ripped and torn, some rather savagely, by what seems to be a large bipedal ape with snow-white fur._

_As we watch in a daze, the creature tears a bicycle rack from its concrete foundations and, with a loud roar, bring it down on the cowering human in front of it. Said human is pasted. At this point our tunnel vision actually expands to cover the fact that there were humans present._

_The police captain is the first to recover, and he raises his gun at the creature and fires._

_BANG_

JEEZ

Ok

Ok

Uh

Uh

What do I do

INFORMATION is key first so let's take a picture…

_We raise our shaky arm and almost drop the phone in the process of taking a picture._

…'Wendigo', blah blah blah eats humans. Looks strong.

The chief's shots made our party jump and drew the Wendigo's attention away from its prey. Not counting the person that was just minced, there's a group of…well, a group of six people and three bloody messes. Now that I'm more focused, I can see that there are scattered viscera and bloody parts all around us…jeez.

Anyways, the shots seem to do some damage, and the Wendigo oh that's a pillar of ice "SYPLHS! WIND!"

_The Wendigo creates a spike of ice with the girth of a telephone pole and rear back to throw it. As the Police Chief dodges, the wind Sylph fires a blade of wind._

The Wendigo growls at us as a part of it bleeds like it was just cut, so I assume she made contact.

Also it's weak to fire so what the fuck am I doing "FIRE FLIES!"

The Fire sylph rears back, creates three balls of flames, and with unnecessary flourish she throws them at the Wendigo. The balls of fire, upon reaching some set distance (probably), explode like grenades and shower the Wendigo in little embers of flames. Apparently that shit hurts a lot, since it roars and takes several massive steps back.

"[Over here! Hurry!]" The police chief yells. I don't actually know if he's the chief but fuck it he is now.

The six remaining people, upon hearing his yell, scurry over towards us.

"[Atsuro!]" Akihiko calls out upon seeing one of them. They know each other?

"[Hey, Sanada.]" Atsuro replies with a weak laugh. "{You came at a good time, I thought we were goners.}" He glances at me and my two Sylphs. "{He looks familiar.}"

Is he worried about my Sylphs?

_The Wendigo, now no longer in flames, lets out a savage roar._

Task at hand. "Sylph, Fire Flies." The Sylph readies another set of Fire Flies and I'm now suddenly very worried about if the spell misses. "Other Sylph, Zan."

"At once." The Fire Sylph bows and lets loose another barrage of flames. The fire impacts the Wendigo and causes it to back off with another savage roar, before the barely perceptible blade of zan…uh…

…kinda just plink at its hair a little. Fuck if it did anything because I can't see it.

Ah, there it is.

_A streak of red begins to form on the Wendigo's arm. The captain puts two more rounds into its torso for good measure._

Burned and bloodied, the Wendigo snarls at us one more time before falling back. The two policemen fires a little more at its retreating form, but I don't think they hit.

"{Wow, those little things are powerful.}" Atsuro says. "Are those Demons?"

I nod. "Mine. They're called Sylphs." I might want to give them distinguishing names to make things easier.

The party breathes out and rests for a bit. As we do, sparkles from the battlefield float over and enter into our bodies. It clusters mostly upon the rescue party.

_Whrrrrr._

…We (me and Akihiko, at least) now have something called a 'reserve macca', of 50 points. Akihiko's phone also says it has 50 points. I don't know what it is or how it can be used.

For now, though, we've managed to rescue six people, so let's head back.

The captain leads us about two streets down before his…radio? Walkie-talkie? Probably a radio. His radio goes off. "{Captain, we have another call for help.}" The radio says, along with what sounds like a road address.

The captain grimaces. "[Understood.]" He looks to the lieutenant. "{lead the civilians back to the station.}" Something else going on?

"{I'll go with you.}" Akihiko…offers? He took a step forward and looks really intense. He also looks at me. "can you help, Ash?"

…Well, let's put two and two together. The captain is worried and Akihiko looks like he's up to something, so there's probably a second group out there. "I'm ready." I nod.

My Demons, on the other hand, are at 38 and 0 mana respectively, so if we meet the Wendigo again I will not have fire as an option.

…Maybe I can use my reserve macca to restock the Demons?

…Ah, there's now a 'Macca Allocator' app. It has the numbers of 50, 0, and 38, with a flashy FILL button underneath the numbers for my Demons (not for me apparently). Well, let's click it.

_Click. Blue sparks fly from our hand into the two Sylphs._

The two sylphs are topped up, and my reserve is down to 22. Given that Macca doesn't seem to regenerate in any way, I imagine this is basically a panic button of some sort, though I wonder if this means I will need to allocate between using reserve macca as a secondary bar of mana, or to stuff it into my non-reserve stack for stronger mons. Either way, too much to worry about for the time being.

Besides, if two Fireflies earned 50 macca, then the tradeoff is more than worth it.

The Captain nods, and we…split from the other officer. Atsuro ends up coming along, too. He said something to the captain and apparently it was enough, so eh. Not going to begrudge more bodies.

"Hey, Ash." Atsuro says as we hustle. "Akihiko said I should join your party."

…He did, didn't he? "I think I need my laptop to do it, but I don't know how it works." I pull out my phone and just point it at him. He pulls out his phone and point it at mine. We're still moving while we're doing this.

Nothing happens.

"Maybe later, then." I shrug.

Since we're much faster (a sense of urgency?) we arrive(?) sooner on a much larger street. This one is littered with cars, the bodies of Demons, and the bodies of humans.

…Demons can leave behind bodies? Strange. I don't remember if the Ogres I fought…this morning…left behind bodies or not. That was like, three hours ago. Also everything I remember fighting turned into sparklies, so…

…Man I'm on edge.

Either way, our party of four skulk along the edge of the bloodstained sidewalk and continue dashing until, finally, the captain motions for us to stop. He peeks around the corner and IMMEDIATELY BEGINS SHOOTING WHAT THE HELL MAN

_The Policeman puts three rounds downrange before something heavy slams into his torso._

AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA

AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA

AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA

_The policeman is knocked flying by a giant flying mace, and both him and the mace slam into the car in front of us. He does not survive._

WHAT THE FUCK WAS THAT?!

_A slender, bipedal armored bear stride into view._

WHAT THE FUCK IS THAT?!

_The bipedal bear retrieves the now sticky mace from the remains of the policeman and turns his eyes towards us._

AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA

AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA

_In our panic, we fall on our ass and begin scooting away from the approaching armored bear. The bear, seeing us first (by virtue of us moving), brings its hammer crashing down on our left knee._

**AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA**

_The resounding CRACK shatters said knee, along with pretty much both legs since the mace is the size of our head. For better or worse, the strike peaks our adrenaline and gets us to think properly again._

MOTHERFUCKER ZAN ZAN ZAN ZAN! "CUT HIM!"

_Zan Sylph obeys, firing shot after shot of near-invisible blades of magical force at the armored bear. The blades strike the bear's armor and, while seeming to cut, also bounce off in various directions._

_By now, Atsuro and Akihiko are no longer in shock. Atsuro quickly takes the bear's picture. "{Lightning, Ice!}"_

_Akihiko then clenches his fists, and rush forward as the Zans finished their strike. With his brass knuckles crackling with electricity, he delivers a quick one-two punch to the bear's torso and finishes with an uppercut._

_The strikes stun the bear and sends it back, where Atsuro, picking up a car's detached bumper with adrenaline-filled strength, swings at the bear's head and makes ringing contact, slamming the bear's head against the wall. One more swing at the bear, and its head is pasted messily into the wall._

FUCKING HELL the dopamine's kicking in and I'm bleeding out oh god

"[Ash! Are you alright?!]" Akihiko asks and

Honestly "I'm BLEEDING THE FUCK OUT DO I LOOK OK?!"

"Master, losing your legs is considered a status ailment." Fire Sylph helpfully mentions like I'm supposed to know what that means

Wait

Wait

I do know what that means

_We put a hand on ourselves and casts Amrita._

AAAAAAAAAAAAAA**AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA**

_The pain of recovering our legs nearly drives us into shock. Akihiko and Atsuro watches as a pair of legs grow into place, neatly replacing the pair that got minced by the bear. We are now whole again, but sitting in a pool of blood slightly diluted by our own urine._

Hooooooly fuck that hurts.

I also can't stand on these legs, either. Hm.

Let's see here…health, health…

…70 / 84.

…Really? I got my legs fucking minced and it was 14 damage? How much would I sustain before I actually die?

…You know what, I don't wanna know, I don't wanna find out. "Are there more bears?" I ask. It may have been nice to ask this before we got into a fight.

"Doesn't look like it." Atsuro replies. "Field is clear."

Oh, he's my kind of guy, apparently. "Who's inside?" I scooch my ass to the nearest wall and begin the slow and arduous journey of pulling myself to my feet again.

Akihiko calls out to whoever is inside, I can't see from my angle. "{Lady inside, you can come out now! We're here to rescue you!}"

A moment of silence later, and two girls creep out from the depths of the shop that they're hiding in. My legs are tingly, but are working, so that's good. I'm upright now.

…One of the girls is bob hair from yesterday, and the other is just a scared little girl.

"[What're your names?]" Atsuro asks both of them.

"[Nitta Io.]" Bob hair replies quietly. Also, Yo?

_The anime pronounces Io as 'yo', while Ash would just go I-O, hence the difference._

"[Yanagiya Koharu.]" The little girl says, clutching tightly onto Bob hair's pants.

_Nitta, unlike her in-game appearance, is wearing jeans and a black t-shirt that seems to be extremely tight around her bust. The little girl is basically in her pajamas, with an oversized jacket haphazardly over her shoulders._

Atsuro takes point. "[I'm Atsuro. This is Akihiko and Ash. What are you girls doing here?]" He says, plus an additional sentence I didn't catch.

"{Koharu-chan's separated from her mother by a large flying something.}" 'Yo' says. "{We found her crying, running through the street.}"

"{When, this morning?}" Akihiko frowns. "{What kind of mother just abandons their daughter like that?}"

Koharu seems angry about something. "{Mommy isn't bad! She's a doctor working for JPS!}" 'Jips.' The hell is Jips?

Akihiko seems to know about it. "{Isn't that a meteorological organization?}" He adopts a thinking pose. "{So she's their internal doctor?}"

"[But first, what do we do?]" Atsuro says, giving some side-eye to the corpse of the police chief. "[Are we going back?]"

_BOOM._

The fuck?

_All of us turn to look towards the direction of the police station._

Holy fuck. There's a giant…thing…hovering over where the police station should be around. Quickly let us take a picture of it

_Snap_

…

'Python'. Python? That thing? It looks like a giant puff of smoke. What about that is a python?

_The Python rains balls of fire down onto the ground._

…Well I feel like I shouldn't debate it. "I don't think we're going back." I say. "Too dangerous." Also Koharu looks like she's about to freak upon seeing it, so getting closer is a no-no.

"[Ash-san says we shouldn't go back.]" Akihiko says. "{In that case, let's make finding Koharu-chan's mother a priority, and head to her workplace.}" He crouches down to Koharu's eye-height. "{Koharu-chan, can you tell me where your mother works?}"

"[She works at the Diet building.]" Koharu says. I know that the Diet building is basically Japan's seat of power, but I don't think there's any group called Jips associated with it…then again, I don't even know what branches are in D.C. so I guess it's only fair that I know jack shit.

"First things first, we need a map." Atsuro says, in both English and Japanese, for my benefit. "There should be a shop around here."

We get to walking. While we do…

The fight with the armored bear earned me 195 Macca, _Not _Reserved. Akihiko also gained 78. I later learn that it's a 'Soldier of Jambavan', for all the good that does me.

For now, the difference between reserve and not is dependent on whether if the target dies or not. So…if I want to regen mana, I have to hurt shit? That sounds…bad.

Anyhoo, I now have another 195 macca to spend, so I bump both Sylphs up to level 7. Zan Sylph gets 1 point in everything but con, and Fire sylph gets substantially more, since it was actually just level 1. It's now about as good as the Zan sylph, just with surprising strength.

I'd like to have some levels too, but eh. Zio has also been successfully transferred, and now I can swap it out with a skill of mine if I feel the need. Since everything and its mother seem to have Zan/Garu resistances (and the two seem to share resistances anyway) I'm swapping out Zan with Zio.

…

While I'm fiddling with my phone, the others are talking. 'Yo' and Koharu both sneak looks at my Sylphs every so often, and I can imagine that they're worried.

The street we're walking on has its share of abandoned cars, mostly trucks, and a rather notable presence of blood and gore on the streets. Every so often, we'd also see a dead demon of some kind. The compendium will only identify dead demons as 'meat', with no descriptor, which is unsettling in many ways. I mean, it makes sense, but it's still unsettling.

After about three blocks-ish, we come across what looks like a small convenience store. The lights are dim, and all the glass windows are smashed. A corpse is draped through one of the windows. Judging by his clothing, he's probably a looter or something.

Speaking of which, I should probably loot this place. Should've looted what was left of the policeman too, to see if his gun was around.

Oh well.

_As the group approaches the store, we draw our pistol and bring up the rear._

"[What should we do?]" Atsuro says, staring into the unlit store. I have to admit it is a bit creepy. While the sun does illuminate most of the store, the sheer cacophony of colors and at least one overturned shelf makes seeing deeper into the store difficult.

"I'll take point." I say and step forward. "Back me up." On one hand, I should send the melee guys in first. On the other, friendly fire is a thing, so…

_Io backs off instinctively when she sees our gun._

The store, fortunately, is not very deep, so the three of us clear the five aisles and see nothing dangerous. The amount of products left over is also inconsistent with the…uh, sizes and stuff. Point is, it feels like there should be more than there is, aka looters have been here already. Still plenty of shit left though.

"Sylphs, keep watch." I say and ready my duffelbag.

_Atsuro goes and finds a map of Tokyo while we stuff the duffelbag. We gain: 8 bottles of water, 14 cups of ramen, 8 packs of chocolate(maybe), and an electric tea kettle._

We have access to thunder magic, so having an electric kettle around means we may be able to boil water down the road. Speaking of which.

_We also loot a car battery._

…This is a stupid idea.

_We drop the car battery._

I'm already having trouble carrying all this stuff along with the 20-odd pieces of electronics, so adding a battery on top of all that is just stupid. I spend…spent…most of my time indoors and don't exercise, so my carrying capacity is incredibly low.

"You're, uh…" Atsuro says, because I'm sure nobody missed my outright banditry. "Nevermind."

"Life first, debt second." I shrug. "Got your map?"

"Yeah." Atsuro clears off a table and lay out his map. "We're here." He says, circling his finger over a general area on the map. "More or less. We need to go here." He points to the heart of Tokyo. I can't tell left from right on his map since it's so incredibly dense, but we have a long, _long _way ahead of us.

"[Yikes.]" Akihiko breathes. "{It'd be nice if we had a car or something.}"

"{Given the road conditions, I feel like a car would hurt us.}" Atsuro says (replies?). "Let's go." He puts away his map, and we get underway again.

_Out of our line of sight, Io also loots some bottles of pain medication and bandaids, as well as a first aid box. She also gets a backpack to put those things into. She does tell/show us what she picked up. She also, while out of our earshot, have a minor debate with Akihiko about the morality of taking this stuff. This is why Akihiko reacted to our looting: she at least showed some worry._

Oh, that's smart. Having some meds does help in the long run.

…It feels a bit callous to not go back, but…

_ROAR! Plus a blast of warm wind from the direction of the police station. _

…Yeah.

…

…

…

[Around an hour of walking later]

…

"Let's take a break." Atsuro says (in both languages). We've walked to a nice-looking inner-city park area…if you ignore the patches of burnt out grass and bloodsmeared jungle gym.

We take a seat on the grass, behind a line of shrubs and the concrete wall. I give Koharu some of the chocolate since it seems like she really needs it.

Since we have a little down time, I pull out my laptop and register Koharu, Io, and Atsuro into the party. I also learn to spell Io's name.

The three of them have no skills to give me, but are otherwise pretty darn good. Atsuro tilts towards being a bruiser despite his nerd status, and Io is magical to a frightening degree. Notably, Io also starts with 15 mana, rather than 10 like the rest of us. Koharu has 1's across the board.

Everybody gets Dia and Amrita, since being able to heal a shattered leg is a great strength to have. I wonder what we need to get more levels, though? Do we have to personally fight and win? Hmm.

The walk itself was rather…well, I wouldn't say 'tame'. We stuck mostly to the minor roads, and very often hear combat going on in the main roads or occasionally in the buildings that we passed by. Not to mention that we also had to detour around demons that seemed to be too tough for us to handle, while worrying all the while that they'll detect us and attack. As such, part of the reason for why we're resting at all is so that we can give our nerves a bit of a rest.

…And, of course, it's the middle of summer, one of the hotter summers, and it's absolutely _disgusting _out here.

"[It's hot.]" Io groans. I'm a little worried about how much resources I need to store, but for now.

_We give a bottle of water to everyone._

I should consider looting like an outdoor activities store. Get some canteens, or an ice box, or something.

"[It feels like it's getting hotter.]" Atsuro takes off his hat and mops his face with it. "[What's going on?]"

"[Maybe it's demons?] Akihiko says, fanning himself. Maybe. "[Maybe its ghosts.]"

I look up into the sky, because weird shit always come from the sky.

…?

There's something round and orange that isn't the sun.

…It has wings.

_At this point, everyone else has noticed that I'm squinting against the sky and have followed my line of sight._

"[What is that?]" Akihiko mutters. "[It looks like a bird.]"

…It could also be a plane.

_The temperature suddenly spikes._

What the…

_By instinct, we all cover our heads and cower, with Akihiko going the extra mile and covering for Koharu. A massive plume of fire strikes the buildings about two roads down, and the thing in the sky (a Phoenix) makes a scorch mark in the sky about a hundred meters long. It's as if a tornado struck, only, y'know, on fire._

GAAAAAAAAAAAAH

_Even though we're two streets down, the heat nevertheless feels murderous. Mercifully, it only lasts for a few seconds._

Aaaaaaa it burns

_Out of caution, our group stays completely still until the Phoenix goes off to do something else._

"[It's like hell.]" Atsuro hisses. "[Shit.]"

"[Is everyone ok?]" Io asks. "[Nobody is hurt?]"

Checking status…we're all at half health. Also, our health values have changed again. I'm now at 86, Akihiko's the man at 106. Fortunately we have more mana. Unfortunately we have to spend it.

_Everbody casts Dia on themselves._

"Whew." Akihiko sighs. "This feels good." He jostles his bulletproof vest to get some air.

I'm worried. "I don't know when that thing will come back, so I think we should get moving."

"I agree." Atsuro says and gets to his feet. "{It's too dangerous to stay in one place for too long.}"

Io and Koharu agrees with whatever he said, and get to their feet as well.

…

[Twenty minutes later]

…

It's blistering hot. I blame that flying sun. This heat is so incredibly oppressive that we're definitely getting stamina-sapped.

…Speaking of getting stamina sapped, our SP are in the single digits. I don't know what happens if our SP hits zero but I assume it can mean nothing good.

"Hey." I call out. (I'm in the rear of the formation). "Let's go over there." I point to what looks ominously like a bombed out office building. "It's too hot."

"I agree." Akihiko pants. By now, we're both seriously considering abandoning our bulletproof vests despite how incredibly short sighted that would be, and we detour to the office building.

…Well, what could be an office building. It's a one-story brick building, but any identifying signs out front has been torn away, along with basically the entire front end of the building. What's inside is an overturned table, shittons of paper, and a bloodied printer laying on its side. I like to believe that someone used the printer to wham a demon in the head.

_As everyone file in, we give the printer a small salute._

"{it's not much better, but at least there's some shade.}" Akihiko says. "Ash, can you help me take this off?" He gestures to his vest.

"Yeah, Atsuro, get mine off to." I feel like I'm literally going to drown in this thing.

_The vests are removed with not too much hassle._

It'd be nice if these had, like, Velcro instead of these fucking straps on the back.

…Anyways…how far away are we from our target?

_We pose that question to Atsuro._

He shakes his head. "I don't know. It's not far by bus, but…" He scratches his head.

But we've never considered walking this distance. Not surprising, really.

_We get out some water and give some to our Sylphs._

They're cute when they're drinking, so it helps raise morale. Incidentally, we're now out of water.

_Boom. Another explosion followed by the scream of fire in the distance._

Another one…I really only noticed after getting burned to shit by that bird, but there's just as much demon on demon combat as there is human on demon. I feel like I should really know why, but at the same time I don't see how knowing would help us any right now.

_Boom. But closer._

…? That sounded a little different.

_We glance at Akihiko, who nods slightly._

"[Something's coming.]" Akihiko mutters. "{Stay low and keep quiet.}"

Io and Koharu nods, hugs, and cowers behind a partially blasted wall. We would all cower behind that wall except it's not big enough for the five of us. If we get found out it'd be our fault, really.

_Boom, but next door._

Sounds like footsteps. Hefty footsteps.

_A pair of large green bipedal humanoids stride into our view._

They look like orcs. Leather armor, large hand axes, women…women?

"[Yuzu!]" Atsuro shouts and goddammit

_The orcs stop and turn our way. Of the pair, the one in the back has Yuzu over its shoulder in a fireman carry._

"[They're weak to wind!]" Io calls out from the back. "Wind!" She repeats, likely for my benefit.

First strike wins then! "Sylphs! Garu!" These guys resemble the Ogre from before, if superficially, so I'm banking on them having good fire resistance.

_The blasts of wind hit the orcs clean in the head. The lead orc's neck snaps back with a resounding crack._

Ah. I felt that. The second one drops the girl and readies a big, dangerous looking ax.

Fuck that noise 2.0. "Zan!"

_The second orc's head flies off in a spray of green colored blood._

Why is it green, though.

"[Yuzu! Yuzu!]" Atsuro runs forward, and then is immediately almost killed by orc 3 and 4, just out of our line of sight. Shit.

_Orc 3, armed with a spear, jams it into Atsuro's chest. The pointy end goes through and we get to see it protruding from his back in its full, bloodied glory._

Atsuro is still alive. He grabs an axe from the headless orc. "[DON'T FUCK WITH ME!]" He slams it home on the orc holding the spear.

_The axe cleaves halfway down the orc before it stops._

How is he still alive?! "Sylphs! Zan!"

_The Sylphs cut into Orc 4 as Orc 3 un-sticks Atsuro and kicks him back into the room._

"[Why you!]" Akihiko lunges forward with his brass knuckles and decks Orc 3 in the nuts. Where the nuts should be. I don't know if demons have nuts. Either way he decks him.

_Koharu scrambles over to the furiously bleeding Atsuro and pops a Dia on him._

One more! "Zan!"

_Orcs 3 and 4's heads roll off their shoulders. All four turn into particles a short while later._

Fucking hell. "Atsuro, you ok?"

"[ow]." He says, still clutching his stomach. "{I thought I was a goner. Thanks, Koharu.}" He gives her a weak smile. She hugs his face.

"Ash, help me." Akihiko says. "That girl."

"Aye." The two of us haul Yuzu into cover. Christ she's hot. At this point I won't be surprised if she's suffering from heatstroke along with whatever knocked her out.

"[Damn.]" Akihiko mutters after putting (and quickly withdrawing) his hand from her forehead. "[Is she going to be ok?]"

"Hopefully. Sylph." I get their attention. "Is there a way for you to use wind without it being a combat action?" They quizzically tilt their heads. It's cute, but not informative. "Like, without it doing damage."

A Sylph spins up some Garu in her hands and just let it be. Quickly, we feel a breeze drift through the room. It's…honestly not that great. Every little bit helps…that action cost her one mana. Hm. We'll have to do more experimentation in the future.

_The Sylph ends up maintaining the Garu for about a minute._

After some sitting around and sipping what's left of our water, the temperature begins to drop. The girl…Yuzu? Stirs as well.

"[Ugh.]" She sits up. "[Who…Atsuro!?]" She sees him. "[What happened to you?! Are you ok?!]" It should be noted that Aturso's shirt has a tear in it, accompanied by immense amounts of blood. Dia refilled his health, but Amrita actually repaired the wound. I had pegged status effects being a big problem sometime down the line, but the fact that we literally need it to bypass natural healing is both a blessing and a pain.

"[I'm alright.]" Atsuro replies. "{I just fell down some stairs.}"

"{Sure you did.}" Yuzu scowls at him. "{What happened to those demons?}" She looks around. "[Where are they?]" Who?

"[We got them.]" Atsuro jerks a thumb to our group. "{I know we don't look like much, but we're pretty damn good in a fight.}" He chuckles, then winces.

"[Ah, then…]" She gives a small bow from her sitting position. "[Thank you very much for saving me.]" She says to us in general. "[May I know your names?]"

We all give a round of introductions.

"What happened?" I ask. Atsuro translates. It's getting quite cool here. I like it.

Yuzu's story sounds rather long and convoluted, but Atsuro finally gets the idea and then need to translate it through. Basically, Yuzu woke up to the sound of something large outside her house. Her parents figured it was an earthquake and rushed out (don't blame them). Then, with the rest of their neighbors, they were attacked by a large flying thing. Atsuro couldn't describe it well, so I just had him call it a 'thing': we can sort it out later, anyways.

Anyways, the thing grabbed a lot of people and tore through the others, and flew off to somewhere deeper into Tokyo. She followed it, because…because of course she did. After some time, she ran into another group of people running away from dogs, and because they were running away from dogs, she also had to run away from dogs.

And then something something, she couldn't quite elaborate and Atsuro _definitely _could not translate, but it eventually ended with the group with their back against a wall and fighting these orcs (I distinctly heard her call them orcs, so…yay.) Which involved her being knocked unconscious.

_Incidentally, the Orcs are technically "Soldiers of Orcus"._

Going by the sound of things, she wasn't the only prisoner.

…So why are demons taking prisoners? Seems kind of strange.

…Or, rather, were they taking prisoners at all? Yuzu's story is obviously fragmented, and she probably doesn't remember all the fine details either. Add in the language barrier, and I probably have a very shattered version of the real picture.

In either case, the fact remains that she _was _being carried and transported, which means that the demons have some other objective beyond just being moving disasters.

Hm.

Well, either way, Atsuro and Yuzu are pouring over a map, so I'm pretty sure we're going to be detouring to find her parents now.

Yuzu gets registered into the group and her Dia and Amrita. Stat-wise, she's basically a beefier Io: not as strong magically, but makes up for it in endurance.

…Also, the rest of us gained 2 levels apiece.

On one hand: gift horse. On the other: why?

I drop my four points into Con and Res evenly. Akihiko: 3 str, 1 con. Atsuro: 2 str, 1 con, 1 spd. Io: 3 mag, 1 res. Koharu: everything but magic.

I should note that Koharu, a literal ten year old, is apparently as strong as me.

_She's eight._

…

Now rested, we are, indeed, going to detour to save Yuzu's parents. I get both her and Atsuro to point to their respective destinations (the Diet and her parents).

"[They were going that way.]" Yuzu is pointing somewhere to the left of Atsuro.

On one hand, I feel like we should head specifically to the Diet to find Koharu's mother and some reinforcements. On the other…I can't, in good conscience, tell Yuzu that we're going to abandon her parents in favor of Koharu's mother, who, I should note, we don't actually know the position of.

…I mean to be fair technically we don't know where Koharu's mother is either, but 'the Diet' is a hell of a lot more concrete than 'I dunno, maybe that way'.

Either way, we get under way again. Now that the second sun is gone, going is much smoother.

…

[Ten minutes in]

…

A group of dogs are fighting with a group of demonic dogs. It doesn't look good. It's also two streets away and _boy _am I not interested in getting tangled in that mess.

…

[15 minutes]

…

We come across a convenience store. The front of it looks like it was burned away, and the insides are…relatively undisturbed. Hm.

_We loot it._

Because of course we do. We stock up on food and water and energy bars. Of the water, we get one bottle per person, plus ten reserves for me to carry.

Notably, the store looks like it was looted before: the cashier's drawer was open and all the cash was gone.

I think this means that the store was attacked by humans using demons, since I don't see what a demon would place in the value of money.

Should be careful then.

…

[25 minutes]

…

A group of humans using demons (henceforth demon tamers/summoners) attacks a group of humans without demons. The group of humans without demons do have bats. The tamers are summarily beaten to death and their demons, upon the death of the tamers, immediately evaporate into blue particles. I don't know who started it and I don't care

Ah shit they saw us.

"[We don't want to fight!]" Yuzu shouts, but the bat-wielders seem to be too hysterical to listen.

She doesn't want to fight, but I don't want to waste my precious stamina running away, so fighting it is!

Hey, they beat a bunch of guys to death, I have the moral high ground here. "Zan!"

_The blade of force cuts into the foremost bat-wielder and tears into his arm. Blood is everywhere, though the actual damage is relatively low._

Th shock value seems to go through, and the bat-wielding group stops in their tracks.

"Akihiko, translate for me." I grumble.

Akihiko's a bit surprised but he does as told. "uh…[If you come closer, we will use lethal force to defend ourselves.]" He gives me a very wary stare after translating.

"{They're bluffing!}" The lead batter shouts, still bleeding. Given his tone I think he doesn't believe me. "[Get him!]" Yep he doesn't believe me.

Fine. "Sylph, Zan, target his neck." I didn't see exactly how the demon summoners fought the batters, but I imagine it wasn't very effective if the batters are still alive.

_A Zan flies out and cuts into the batter's neck. Blood is everywhere._

This time, the damage seems to be significant, since he's scrambling back and clutching at his neck. Why can't we have just decapitated him?

"[Stop!]" Yuzu yells at me. "[Stop fighting!]"

She's that kind of person, huh? "Sylph, Fire Flies."

_Motes of flames fly toward the already bleeding batter, engulf him, and burn him to death. The phone in our pocket goes *ding* twice. Also Yuzu smacks us in the face._

…Ow?

"[That's enough.]" Atsuro grabs Yuzu's arm as she swings back for a second smack. The batters make a hasty retreat after their main dude goes down.

While the two of them argue about…something…I go and fetch the batter's bat. It's a wooden bat, soaked with the blood of the demon summoners. I think I'm going to leave this alone, lest I get blamed for something down the road.

I _will_, however, loot the devices and wallets of the dead.

"Is that ok?" Akihiko asks me. "Taking their stuff?"

I shrug. "They're dead, and I don't know if Demons eat human corpses." I put the wallets in a plastic bag and stow it away in my duffle bag. "Better than letting them eat the IDs." Ok. "Sylphs? Slap Yuzu for me."

_Both Sylphs go and smack Yuzu on her head. It's more confusing than painful._

When her shock goes away (an action that takes literally one second), she glares at me. Her red eyes are terrifying, not gonna lie.

"[What was that for?]" She demands of me. "[Why did you kill that guy?]"

Uh…I give Atsuro a 'please translate for me' glance. "Because he's already killed three other people?"

_Atsuro translates._

Yuzu's glare goes a little soft. "Well, ok, but {that doesn't give you the right to just do things like that!}" god she talks fast.

"Walk and talk." I say, and keep going.

…

It takes me a few minutes (like, 15 of them) to convince Yuzu that I am not a coldblooded murderer despite all evidence to the contrary, and by the end of the session she's no longer speaking to me.

I'll take it.

Everyone else is, understandably, wary of me. I'm a little bit wary of myself, to be honest. I don't exactly have a history of violence, so it feels a bit weird that the dude died by my hands and I don't seem to care for him one whit. Maybe the Demon Summoning things are also messing with my mind?

I mean, they let me use magic and all, so…

…oh, speaking of which. Upon taking the devices of the dead summoners, I gained 660 macca. Upon taking the life of the batter, I gained two levels.

If it is indeed the case that taking human lives is the best way to gain levels, then…things are gonna get weird.

…

[Three hours later. It is now dusk.]

…

We find a group of civilians clustered around a…police(?) armored personnel carrier unit. I think. There are four vehicles in total: a bus, a camo Armored Personnel Carrier, and two police cars. The bus is kind of a short, armored bus with a mono-blue paintjob and a very odd-looking white stripe in the middle. It looks like a toy, honestly. A wheeled trapezoid.

I assume, then, that the camo APC's from the JSDF while the bus and police cars are civvies.

_The bus is riot police, while the police cars are local police._

I suppose this means we're a bit safer now? It seems that some of the civvies here are also volunteers with their own demons. I can see some of the bear soldiers that we had to deal with earlier. Yuzu is understandably not happy at seeing said soldiers, by the way.

Akihiko, having the most trustworthy face, leads our group. We turn in the wallets (and all contents therein) and report that Koharu's mother maybe works at the Diet building and can we maybe go visit?

"{I'm sorry to say, but the Diet Building has been destroyed.}" The policeman says apologetically. Oh shit?

…

So…yeah. The Diet Building is a smoking crater, apparently. As of roughly 0900 this morning the location got nuked by…something. The damage was also extremely localized, radiating about five meters out from the boundaries of the building and then suddenly stopping.

…Which…means that we're back to square one with regards to finding her. The police helpfully directs us to a local station, about two blocks down. The descriptor that the police used seemed to perk up the entire party. I wonder why.

…That said, police presence in this area is high, which means we can breathe a little easier. Skirmishes are still happening, mind, but at least we can travel with the knowledge that the people are not distinctly out to get us.

_We walk the two blocks without having to take detours or hide._

The police station is…um…half of a building. The other half looks like it was stomped on by the foot of god. All around the station are tents, boards of missing peoples, charging stations, food…

_There are also rallying flags for volunteer/police defense groups to gather. This station is, in effect, responsible for defending everything around it in a three-block radius._

Akihiko leads the way to the closest thing resembling a front desk, and everyone who has something to ask or turn in do so. The wallets that we wanted to turn in back at the checkpoint leaves our hands here.

_Atsuro translates._

Koharu is looking for her mother, who is, fortuitously, working at this location as a doctor. Woo! (Well technically she's two blocks away looking after injured civilians, but eh).

Io and Yuzu are looking for their respective family members…that makes the rest of us sound pretty heartless, huh? We're worried about our family too, but it's a lower priority than, say, just surviving for us.

I'm of course worried, and there's jack shit I can do about it, since (understandably) no airlines are flying and nothing's working. I won't be surprised if the undersea cables have been cut, too.

Still, Io and Yuzu need to go home. Io lives relatively close to here (twenty blocks away), while Yuzu's live near Shibuya. We are, incidentally, nowhere near Shibuya.

So the two of them are going to go by police escort plus one (Atsuro – Yuzu, Akihiko – Io). I get to accompany Koharu (ish) along with a police escort to see her mother. Incidentally, the police escort cannot speak English.

Soon enough, we arrive at the…refurbished elementary school that's serving as a camp of a sorts. The classrooms have been more or less emptied and replaced with futons. Tons and tons of futons. A nice-looking lady is going around with a clipboard, listening to the civilians as they talk and point to various parts of their bodies. She seems more 'nurse' than 'doctor', and that's kinda neat.

Also I've met three women so far and they all seem rather top-heavy. I deserve a participation award.

"[Koharu!]" The woman shouts as soon as she sees Koharu.

"[Mama!]" Koharu shouts right back, and she…dutifully waits so the lady can leave the room of civvies to sweep the girl up in her arms.

The policeman says something and claps my shoulders in a rather congratulatory tone, so I assume that means something good. He then leaves me with the pair after saying (I assume) something about my inability to speak Japanese.

Not that it affects the mother any. She smiles politely at me. "[Thank you for saving my daughter.]" She bows. "{If there's anything I can do for you, please let me know.}"

I don't know what she said but I assume it's very pleasant. "Thank you very much." I say back to hammer the point that I can't carry a conversation. "I'll be leaving now. [Excuse me]." I say the last bit in Japanese and then turn to leave.

…

Well, I'm alone now, might as well look around this camp for the time being.

_Exploration commences. About five minutes later…_

The camp is basically a street corner made up of essentially four buildings per side. The police station is basically the 'gate' of the camp, with the school being the 'center'. If we were to map the buildings on a…uh…a map, then the police station would be A2, while the school would be C3. The rest are surrounding small family-owned shops and the like, with the minor roads and alleyways blocked off by haphazard piles of debris. Given the nature of some of the debris, I imagine the blockage is not exactly done on purpose.

…Though I should note that you _can _get past the debris if you wanted to, it's just a harder path than the main entrance.

The other buildings are also repurposed for…other…purposes…the ones nearest to the police station (A1, B1) are earmarked for Demon Summoners, and have generators running to provide power to recharge our devices.

A3 is specifically for processing incoming civilians, and the other buildings are more or less free for civilian use. Tents are also everywhere, especially on the main road that runs next to the police station, because it is still summer and being Inside without air conditioning (or lights) is a pain.

I have a lot of devices that I don't need, but I also don't have anyone who can translate for me, so that's nice. (To clarify: little bits of words? Fine. Anything resembling a conversation? Nope.)

Well, that's fine, I guess.

…

I ended up chilling out in a bed for some well-deserved rest.

_Read: we passed out for thirty minutes. There's droll and everything and our mouth feels like leather._

About thirty minutes later, the Io/Akihiko pair came back with their police escort.

"No go." Akihiko sighs as we reconvene. "There's too much action."

…So, basically, the entire reason why we've been more or less safe so far is due, in effect, to good luck.

At about halfway to Io's house, they found essentially an army of bipedal bears fighting against an army of bipedal goats. Like I wish I was kidding about this. Akihiko recorded the goat demons as 'Soldiers of Baphomet', which…is interesting, not gonna lie.

Either way, between the two armies going at it on the ground and multiple Pythons in the air (supposedly), the policeman decided that to proceed further was a seriously stupid idea, and they turned back.

I imagine that Yuzu should be back pretty soon too.

…

[Another thirty minutes later]

…

Yeeep. Yuzu and Atsuro are back with their escort and a new person. Lean, very composed, blue hair…dude's a protagonist, yeah?

"This is a good friend of mine." Atsuro explains with a very relieved grin.

"[I'm Minegishi Kazuya, pleased to meet you.]" The guy says politely. "[Thank you for protecting my friends.]"

I shrug. "We protect each other." Atsuro translates.

_Ping._

Dude what the fuck

_Kazuya's stats get put into our roster._

His parameters: level 10, 162 hp, 65 mp, 70 sp, 10/9/9/9/9, maragi, mabufu, mazio, diorama, resist phys…physical? 'Blitzkrieg', and has an active demon named 'Flaemis'.

To compare: me: level 6, 127 hp, 43 mp, 51 sp, 3/3/7/7/2, garu/dia/zio/amrita/anger hit, two sylphs.

I mean I'm not the strongest dude around here by far but _holy shit _what has this guy been eating

Also, what's the difference between Zio and Mazio?

"If you don't mind, can you add Kazuya to our party?" Atsuro asks me while I'm staring at my phone. "It helps if we all work together."

"{Really, Atsuro?}" Yuzu says skeptically. "{I'm grateful that he's helping us organize, but I don't know if I trust him after what we saw him do.}" I assume she's not being too happy with me given her sideways glance.

"{It's not as if he attacked without cause, right, Yuzu?}" Kazuya asks. "{I don't believe he's evil.}"

"{Well, if you say so, Kazuya.}" Yuzu mutters. I think she likes him.

"{What I say don't sway you, huh?}" Atsuro says with a bit of a smirk and yep she's glaring his soul out of his ears. Not that he seems to mind…must be a closely-knit group.

Anyways, everyone sans Koharu gets introduced to each other and we, as a group, volunteer to help out the police as Demon Summoners.

The police, incidentally, are just trying to get a grasp on the situation. The existence of demons, and the fact that some of them are flat out immune to gunfire (and that Japanese police aren't the most well-armed group) means that having a supplementary source of firepower is nice.

For the time being, the goal is to "eliminate the bears and goats" which sounds really, really weird, but…judging from the police reports, those two groups are the most dangerous in the region, and their battles with each other are covering more ground.

…why Baphomet, though? Why…uh…Jambavan, though? What are demons? There's a million questions that need to be answered.

For the moment, though…

Me, Akihiko, and Io will make one team, while Kazuya, Atsuro, and Yuzu will make the other team. Both teams are combat capable (to an extent). We won't be working alongside a police unit completely (not enough policemen around), so the teamwork is more of a trust thing than anything else.

My team, by virtue of my…uh…stickier fingers…will focus primarily on recon and salvage. Also known as: government-supported looting (within reason). Kazuya's team, by virtue of him being a murdergod, will focus more on fighting.

Like…

…We have seen a depressingly low amount of humans around this camp, and in our journey in general. Like, this is more or less day…two? Three? Of Mass Confusion and Panic. Some loss of life is expected, sure, but there should be so many humans that the threat of being trampled to death should be a real possibility.

Now, to be fair, some of the families are sheltering in place, so they're not out and about while demons roam the streets, but…damn, I now wish I paid more attention to the buildings when we walked here.

Well, no point worrying about that now. Survival comes first.

.

.

.

{ === + === }

Author Notes:

Koharu is, canonically, the adopted daughter of Otome, and her last name is never revealed. That's a hassle, so for the purposes of this story they are biologically mother/daughter. She married young, or something.

(And is a doctor/nurse/whatever she did in JPS at 23. Anime time is weird.)

Technically Otome is a member of the Osaka branch and thus would not be in Tokyo, but I make the rules so…

Demon Compendium:

[Genma] Soldier of Jambavan – Literally an armored bipedal bear. As Jambavan is a low-level summon that's descriptively a 'king', I felt that it was only reasonable for it to have foot soldiers.

[Vile] Soldier of Baphomet – An armored bipedal goat. The fact that they're in combat with the bears is a matter of coincidence. Their shape, too, are a matter of convenience.

[Vile] Soldier of Orcus – Orc. Not the same Orc as an actual Orc. Squatter, rounder, squishier. Like an Orc if they never exercised and only ate processed foods.

[Jaki] Wendigo – "It has a face that looks like a skull and its thick fur lets it run quickly in snow. It appears in villages and eats humans. Sacrifices are common to avoid being attacked. It is said to be a type of spirit that dwells in mountains." Also apparently from Canada.

[Dragon] Python - "A gigantic, black snake god born from the Greek goddess Gaea with no father. He has unparalleled prophetic abilities and has protected oracular shrines since days of old. Python is said to have been the guardian of Delphi, site of Delphic oracles. He is sometimes called "the king of the deceitful spirits" and gave prophecies that would only be in his favor, but he never gave prophecies that went against Gaea's will."

Visually is just a giant plume of swirling smoke, and is also significantly higher-levelled compared to the party. The fact that it is a plume of swirling smoke has repercussions on how it can be interacted with.

[Element] Flaemis - "This low-level fire elemental controls one of the four prime elements that compose the world. It is formed of "dryness" and "heat" essences." Essentially a man of fire.

For the purposes of this story, elements/mitama are 'wildcard only' demons and are, as a consequence, exceedingly rare. While this does mean that the game protagonists (and certain antagonists) are wildcards, they are by no means the only one.

Party alignment:

Lawful Good – Yuzu, Io, Koharu

Lawful Neutral – Akihiko, Atsuro, Kazuya (DS1 protagonist)

Chaotic Neutral – Ash.


	3. Day 4, Travel

{ === + === }

Whew.

It's been…two days? Since we've arrived at camp. I've spent my time essentially scouring neighboring locations for resources, which gives me…a better understanding of what's going on.

There's about a ten…ten…block? Ten block buffer between us and most of the action that's going on. The soldiers of Jambavan and Baphomet have an extremely wide engagement radius (as far as I can see) but we're not at the epicenter.

It is worth noting that the Orcs from before—Soldiers of Orcus—are also somewhat active in the region, and apart from random Demons popping up here and there they're strangely the biggest threat to our camp.

Note that I'm only calling it a buffer zone because beyond it is near constant fighting: soldiers of all factions still wander around within the buffer (and try to kill us) but, y'know, comparatively speaking it's safer. Kazuya's squad and everyone in it has basically not left the camp for the two days, occupied as they were with just camp defense.

So, for the past two days, we've been systematically cleaning up the buffer zone for food and medicine. Given that we're in a primarily residential sector, that meant that most of it involved looting recently abandoned homes and running away from Orcs with said foods.

They don't want those foods, mind, they just want us. I like to be perverted and think they want Io specifically, but no, they just want all of us without preferences.

Anyways, as this…Demon Crisis continues to bloom, we're actually getting some good news! Well, good news and bad news. The good news is that, for whatever reason, short range radios work, and work over some seriously bonkers distances. Bad news one is that…well, they work, over seriously bonkers distances. I think our base has connections to at least eight other police stations around (some of them as organized as ours) and for some moments yesterday morning it was a cacophonic mess until people started delegating frequencies.

But the bad news number two is that uh…well, shit's fucked. Like, we knew that this would be the case, but holy _balls _it hasn't really sunk in how bad things got. Well, ok, that's not really true. Sometimes it sinks in, sometimes it…un-sinks? Is that a thing? Does that make sense?

Like you see something and you go 'oh wow the world's really changed', and then five hours later see something else and make pretty much the same revelation.

Bad news number three is: we're also a bit fucked. See, the whole 'ten block buffer' business doesn't work too well against flying Demons, or ones that are definitively above our weight class. On my last return trip, something large and flying had torn into one of the corners of the base and demolished the building there. The defense teams fought it until, supposedly, it got bored and left. Casualties were severe.

On the plus side (good news number two), Orcus's army seems to be more focused against the bears rather than the goats, so the heaviest fighting has been pushed back, to the point where we have a chance at breaking through the incidental blockade. The…anti-silver lining of that news, is that we need wheels to do so.

Since the base is slowly sliding into fubar territory, the police are evacuating to a better location…ish. According to the radio the new location is a hastily fortified subway station, with a proper connection out of the city. The metro isn't working I don't think, so I don't know how that's going to work. I also know nothing about the Tokyo metro situation so I don't even know if there's a line that's supposed to go out of the city to begin with, but that's what Atsuro said they said so…

To get there, it's decided that we need more wheels, significantly more wheels than what we already have. Currently, the base's vehicle list comprises of an armored vehicle, six police patrol cars, and three police vans. It's respectable, but the base currently shelters something like a hundred people, and those vehicles aren't going to fit a hundred people _plus _supplies.

To get those wheels, we scoured(ish) the nearby surroundings and found all vehicles that aren't just individual cars. Any individual cars that no longer works gets its gas tank ripped out by a summoned demon and drained into barrels and gas canisters. Side note: strength as a stat? Not the same thing as muscle strength. I'll get more into it later.

Going back to cars.

One of these locations—the basement parking lot of a hotel—has some larger vehicles, and one of them, a full-size bus, has caught my interest.

…well, ok, more like 'the police took all the smaller vehicles and didn't want the bus because it's too cumbersome' but I like to believe I had some say in the matter.

"The police are very kind." Akihiko says with some sarcasm. "To give us this gift."

"{Won't this attract a lot of attention?}" Yuzu asks. "{It's not as if the demons out there can't take down cars.}"

"{Yeah. Hopefully we won't have to use it for very long.}" Atsuro sighs. Probably not a good sign. "Can you go inside, Ash?"

"Sure." I take the keys (stolen from the hotel by an earlier team) and unlock the driver door. It's a little smaller than I thought it would be, honestly.

Incidentally, this building has no power so we're using flashlights. It's…kinda creepy, not gonna lie.

The outsides of a bus denote it being some kind of tourist company (as translated by Atsuro) so it's probably not a part of this hotel like the other vehicles. The inside is…probably as expected of a bus being driven to a place like this. It's not dirty—it's Japan, after all—but there is a definite sense of use in the rows of plastic seats.

_We give the ignition a go._

Engine still works, so it still has power, I've never driven anything larger than a sedan in my entire life, so this is going to go great.

…Still, it feels nice. To have a place that isn't vigorously shared by others.

_Vrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr._

…What now?

…Uh…I am being told that I can register this Bus as a 'Base' for me and, by extension, my team. I am only allowed a single base.

Fuck yeah I'll have it be a bus.

_Boop_

Oh fuck it take macca? And 500 of it?

…Eh, I can afford it.

So this basically acts as a permanent drain on my macca while I have a base, in exchange for…what, exactly?

Hm. I'll have to do a deep dive on this at some point. For now, let's see…

_We, through careful, CAREFUL observation by the rest of the crew, slowly drive the bus out of the garage._

Note to self: wide turns.

_And then we drive it a little more back into camp to get it topped off. Gasoline is precious, and ultimately we only get what's left, also known as 'half a tank'._

There is basically no way we can drive this through the streets as it is: there are too many holes and wrecked vehicles due to battle damage.

…Still, it's been fifteen minutes and I've learned a lot about this system.

First off, the cost of 500 macca is a Fucking Godsend. As a 'Base', it cuts the time of SP regeneration from one point per hour to one per _minute_. No automatic health recovery (that I can see) though, but that's honestly a nonfactor now that we can, y'know, pop Dias and Amritas without a care in the world. This benefit extends to everyone who's registered as a part of my party, just in case if it wasn't good enough.

I can freely change the insides of the bus as I please, and any items put into the bus is 'registered' as a part of the base and can be placed freely. Caveat: the items that are placed into the game are basically placed 'as is', so, for example, if I were to get a suitcase with a broken lock and register it, then the lock would continue to be broken regardless of where I put the suitcase. In order to fix it, I would have to unregister it, physically haul it out, fix it, and then register it back in. The 'hauling out' part isn't just a saying, either: if I want to have like a 150-pound piece of furniture, it would have to be manually moved into the bus before it can be registered.

Also, consumables like food/water that get registered stop being edible until they're unregistered, which is an interesting annoyance. Weirder still is that things the bus needs to 'eat' to function (gas, electricity, rubber) are still consumed while being registered, but I wouldn't know what to do if something punctured my gas tank while driving, so, y'know, gift horse, mouth, etc.

The macca cost of the base is fixed, and the base is functionally immortal. Any damage it takes will eventually repair (jacking up the cost in the process). HOWEVER, the same immortality is not conferred to anybody on the inside of the base. We learned this by (like idiots) having a policeman literally shoot me through the bus. Hurt like a bitch, but nothing a Dia couldn't fix.

Either way, both me and the bus took damage, and while the bus's window hole fixed itself, mine didn't, so that's how we found out. Registered equipment also heal the same way, so that's nice. Well, 'heal' to its condition when registered, but eh.

After some thought, we (with a lot of outside input) redesigned the bus. The general size of the base could not change, so we couldn't make it taller or whatever. Instead: the back of the bus is gouged out and is exposed to the outside like a large handicap ramp, so we can park large objects that we want to register into the base. The 'dock' is separated from the rest of the bus via a hatch, and it's honestly a bit of wasted space but eh.

The rest of the bus is separated into two areas: the 'front' of the bus, which acts as a staging area for us. There exists a bank of batteries connected to another bank of solar panels mounted on the top of the bus. It's a charging station for our electronics because holy shit are we reliant on our electronics. There are also some cushions and storage for a little bit of comfort on what is otherwise the bare steel floor. The 'back' of the bus has rows of triple bunks. Buses like this normally have a small layer underneath the walking floor for luggage, but I lowered it as much as possible to make room for the bunks. In any case, the beds are very tight, but it's better than nothing.

Sadly, there's no way to separate the boys and girls sides without drastically cutting into the ability to actually walk into the beds, so the girls'll have to do with threatening to murder the fuck out of us if we try something funny.

There is also an undeclared third section of the bus that acts as general storage. We'll be using it for food and meds and stuff. The bus itself has an extra layer of outer armor made of scrap metal that also obscures the windows—don't want people peeping in on us. The lower parts of the front window is also armored to give us protection against head-on attacks.

…Hum.

_We experiment._

Oh neat. I can change the scale of the base. It doesn't change the size of the base's insides and costs a fortune in macca upkeep, but if I wanted to hide a base this would be how to do it. I also can't leave the base when I have its size changed, so that's…a bit of a minus.

Still it'll definitely be useful in select situations.

…

Anyways, with our preparations completed (ish) we convoy up and head out, our bus being in the very, very back.

"{Let me just say that this is a weird way to travel.}" Yuzu says. "{I feel like a prisoner with how these windows are sealed off.}" I don't think she likes it very much. Also it's very quiet in here despite me driving. It's kinda creepy. I'm used to buses being…more ear-blowy.

"{It's probably safer than having the windows fully exposed.}" Atsuro says (replies?). "{Besides, as long as it's a safe place to stay I don't really mind.}" he stretches and lays back on a little round cushion.

"{Oh, sure, the tech shut-in is fine with everything being dark.}" Yuzu huffs. "{We need to get some lamps.}"

"{We can just ask him to change it when we take a break.}" Akihiko says. "{It doesn't look like it's too tough for him.}"

I wonder what they're talking about? I'm driving and I am very, very scared of fucking up something this large.

…

_Ten minutes go by._

Y'know, it's kind of strange that we're able to drive on the road at all, considering all the violence that's currently going on.

Speaking of which, within the past ten minutes we've seen demons run about, fight each other, fight other humans, _eat _each other, eat humans, and try to attack us. It takes a lot of my effort to just get on with my driving and not worry about these other things, because there is nothing that we can realistically do to save everyone. The good thing, though, is that the police in other vehicles have guns and ammo, and they're doing their best to be a roving battle wagon to cover the humans. Our group do hear things like that, so I…uh…open the two doors so our best casters can use them as firing points and help out with their spells. The flying demons that we do have (the convoy in general) also take off and take interception patterns around the convoy and provide fire support. We run out of mana very quickly.

Fortunately we can convert macca into mana and keep the pain train going a little longer.

…

_An hour of slow-paced drive by shootings go by._

_…_

It's really good that Kazuya gave us access to the area of effect versions of the spells or else I can imagine this cost-benefit analysis going pear shaped rather quickly. As it stands, the cost of rapid refilling our demons' mana is pretty much outweighed by the amount of macca we're earning.

…

_Another five minutes go by._

…

Aaaand we're boned. A giant ball of floating faces and tentacles just crossed the street before us and stopped. The thing is literally the size of a blimp and it is terrifying. The phone identifies it as 'Legion', and the radio chatter on our line has turned into a frenzy of people (I assume) asking for directions.

The fact that it is a giant pulsating meatblimp is so disgusting, I swear to god. The rest of the caravan starts unloading firepower into it, while the rest of us in the bus just sits and watches.

"[Flaemis!]" Kazuya's the first to bring out his guns. His liquid flame person/thing shoots parts of itself at the Legion and oooh that's **bad**

_The flames, quite large when they're leaving the demon, turn into something resembling a little stream before it hits the Legion._

Ok yeah that is big and we are…not able to run because we are a bus.

_The rest of the caravan more or less make a U-turn and flee. At least one of the vehicles try to use the sidewalk and hit obstructions and stop cold._

I can't U-turn in something like this. Fortunately, the Legion is floating so…Gunning it! "Kazuya! RTB!" I yell as I put the pedal to the metal. We decided on a few terms that everyone can understand, with RTB (Return To Base) as…uh…Return To Base.

_The bus's version of 'pedal to the metal' is…not very impressive. It is fortunately automatic, or it would've been really anticlimactic to 'gun it' and then have the engine die._

It's…a harrowing twenty seconds before the bus moves with anything resembling speed, but fortunately the Legion didn't seem fazed. Instead, it floats following after the bulk of the caravan…then drifts off course to its right (our left). I wonder why?

_Not that we will find out: the Legion picked up Orcus and veered off for a fight._

Either way, it's good for us.

"What do we do? Do we go back for the others?" Akihiko asks as we continue, but at a much slower pace.

No. "No point. We were never allies in the first place." It would take too long for us to regroup given, y'know, Bus. "Besides, I'm moving slow, so if they want to regroup they can."

Ten minutes later, no regroup happens, so I assume we're alone now.

_The Police caravan actually had the same thought as us: 'if the kids want to regroup, they can'. They veered off in a different path due to the confusion of regrouping._

"We're still going to the Diet, yeah?" Atsuro asks. "No change?"

I nod. "No change." Kinda wish I installed a PA system in here. "Can you get us directions, Atsuro?"

He plops down next to me and flips open his laptop. "Yeah." I assume he has an offline map. "You know [left][right] in Japanese, yeah?" I nod. "Ok." He begins giving directions, sticking mostly to major roads.

As we go, we counter sporadic resistance: mostly demons doing their own things who see our Bus. At the beginning, Kazuya and…basically everyone else…was really gung-ho about murdering everything they saw, but then Otome got them to stop for a bit to see if they aggroed the bus. After about twenty minutes, the observation is that: yes, some of them do. The rest only aggro if the attackers get aggroed, and only then if they see some benefit to joining in the attack, whether if it's against us or against our targets. Still, going is smooth.

Except for one instance where apparently a giant demon with a massive fist took a swing at us and basically crushed the entire Bus like a fucking tin can. Good thing it just hit the backside of the bus, though, so all we were left with were a concussion and some healable damage. The Macca needed to regenerate the base meant that all the demons needed to be unsummoned to spare the upkeep. Incidentally, unsummoned demons cost half Macca. We're ok.

As we continue through the city, ostensibly deeper into Tokyo, the…I dunno, NPC on NPC fighting dies down. What we can see of the fighting becomes more and more demon versus demon, and the presence of humans—live or dead—become less and less.

Also…I don't know if it's just my feeling, but…

"{Hey, doesn't this place feel deserted?}" Yuzu says, looking through the door.

Atsuro then snaps his fingers and says that everybody would like some windows. I give the wheel to Otome for a little bit so I can expose some of the windows in the front. It takes like a minute.

Either way, yeah. I understand that, as time goes on, people will die. If 10% of the population in Tokyo got in a random engagement and had a 10% chance to die every 10 minutes, that's basically…uh, a not insignificant amount of people. I can't math right now. Also, more importantly, large creatures like that Phoenix and those soldiers will likely do outstanding damage.

…However, even so. I'm not very familiar with the Tokyo skyline, but it feels…shorter, somehow.

"{Some of the buildings are gone.}" Otome says with her hand to her mouth. "[Is this the demons' doing?]" I assume that's bad.

"[Yeah.]" Atsuro loads up a photo. "[Here.]" He shows everyone a picture of him, Kazuya, and Yuzu standing…somewhere. There's a huge window behind them. "{It's not a very good picture, but look here.}" He circles his fingers over an area in the background of the photo. "{The Diet building should be around here.}"

"{It's hard to tell, but I do feel like certain structures are missing.}" Akihiko says pensively. I assume we're dealing with bad news beaaaaars…?

_We stop rather abruptly._

"Why are we stopping?" Atsuro asks.

Because in front of us is the ground. "Look."

He stands up, then blinks. "[What the hell…]"

The road has suddenly stopped, replaced by a dirt crater the size of…the size of…it's huge, ok? Really huge. I can't even estimate the size of this thing…one…two…

_We begin counting the deadend roads that we can see along the crater._

…Eight? Eight roads' worth. Which is completely meaningless as a unit of measurement. Still, what do we do about this? The Bus can't offroad.

"{It should be close by.}" Otome says, worried. "{I mean, that looks like the right wing of the Diet Building there.}" She points.

I hear the word Diet, so I assume that the building in question…what's left of it…is what we're looking for.

"{So what do we do now?} Atsuro asks with a sigh. "{Japan's in a terrible position right now if something just flattened the seat of power.}"

"It's getting dark, let's find a place to hide." Akihiko says. "Let's talk tomorrow." He rubs his eyebrows. I think there's probably a lot of stress right now.

I pull the Bus away from the crater by a block or so and park it right in front of…a small shop, look at that…and then I get my Sylphs to throw a massive camo tarp over it. The BaseBus is still a really big target and I assume anything wandering around _will _fight us, so every little bit helps.

Looking at the sky, we have like another…twenty minutes of daylight and there's a shop nearby, so let's go looting!

_Looting occurs._

The shop had an upstairs and its previous owners were…uh…dragged out of their window kicking and screaming, judging by the bloody smudges on the walls. I am fairly confident that they did not survive. In their memory, we steal all of their clothing, blankets, and some stuff from their mom-and-pop store, namely: grains, prepackaged food, some extra batteries for flashlights, and other livelihood stuff.

Dinner is about as quiet as it can be: everybody's more or less gotten to know each other over the past few days, but…yeah. The fact that we can never seem to create a sense of permanence and safety might have something to do with it.

Either way, we talk it over and, well, there's simultaneously so many options and yet not many options at all. Looking for everyone's families is still on the cards, but at this point…well. The bloody handprints also made us aware that ambushes can very easily happen in this new normal. In other words, from this point onward, when people move, they move as a party of three or four, so we can cover each other's asses. All those old videos or six-second things where SUDDENLY something jumps at you from the shadows is now a very real danger, after all.

Fuck jumpscares, by the way. Never liked them. Now that I can actually die from them I like 'em even less.

Anyways, with…as much food as we feel comfortable eating (read: not much), we go to sleep for the night. There aren't enough beds despite the triple bunking, so me and Kazuya sleep in the front staging area.

Come the next morning, we consult a map and decide that Akihiko's place is the closest from our current location, so that will be the first target. Otome gets to drive this time, since I need to spend time doing some team management. Throughout the night we seem to have taken some damage, since the Macca cost rose slightly. One of the wheels got fucked (taking fifteen minutes to regenerate) but otherwise it's nothing serious.

…Well, hell, given that the base literally recovers from being pasted, any kind of non-fatal damage to the inhabitants is basically nothing serious. There isn't even an increased permanent cost from taking damage either.

For the past days, battles, so on, so forth…everyone gained roughly 5 levels. I buff my defenses again. Atsuro and Akihiko choose to be better fighters—Atsuro's better with magic but Akihiko's got more bulk. Io and Yuzu are our dedicated casters and they're…kinda the same. Io's got more raw power, and Yuzu's got more speed. Kazuya's stupid-balanced across the board, and Otome's like me but more useful. Koharu is _still _as strong as me, and now she's faster too.

…Also I seem to remember level-ups occurring naturally before now? Weird. Really weird. Maybe I'm misremembering.

Macca wise, after subtracting the 1000 cost of the Base, we have a spare of 8000. After subtracting our demon maintenance fee, we have a spare of about 5000.

5000 can support more demons. We want more demons for the additional manpower. After talking it over with Kazuya, we decided on a baseline of two demons per person when they're sallying: one for frontline work, one for backline work. Practically speaking, bombardiers like Io and Yuzu can handle more demons if they're in the back line as artillery, while Akihiko punching shit will only have one demon that he can actually coordinate with. And, of course, each sallying party would also need a backup healer in case we need to patch up damage and all the humans are tapped. Maybe also to deal with party wipes, though that assumes everyone's dead, and that might be hard to get around…

…Still, two per person seems like a good mix. It gives us a certain degree of flexibility to have those options…and besides, we can always send more people with more demons if things get dicey. With that in mind, let's summon some more Demons!

In retrospect that sounds incredibly irresponsible.

…

_It takes us a minute or so._

SUMMONING SUCCESSFUL

…

In the interest of being able to support a good mix of numbers and quality, we've summoned a grand total of five demons and boosted them all to level 10.

Kazuya, looking for some frontline bulk, spent 400 Macca and summoned a…uh…'Shiisa'. Looks like a colorful version of the stone tiger thing in front of my grandparents' house. It is an 'Avatar', 'Entity', and 'Momentum'. It comes with stupid high base stats and some neato skills in the form of 'Double Fangs' and 'Rampage', which are both physical skills. Comparatively speaking it has the highest health in the entire demon roster (which is saying something since his Flaemis is 13 levels higher).

Io's next: she spends a total of 400 mana on two demons (250, 150) and gains: A very, _very _tilted Pixie, and a… 'servant of Aphrodite', which is oddly fitting. The Pixie (150) is basically a smaller Io: same creamy hair color (but longer), same…oversized bust, and same STUPID high magic score at the cost of basically everything else. It's got the second highest magic score after my first Sylph. 5 level difference.

…Like its bust is so oversized in proportion to its body that it has issues with momentum and I find its flying troubles to be refreshingly funny.

Her second, the 'Servant of Aphrodite', is…a naked young girl. Like…imagine the Birth of Venus painting but with a center figure that's like…twelve. I can't put into words how…icky, it feels, I guess, to just suddenly *have* that pop out of nowhere. On the plus side, we have learned that Demons can be registered with optional equipment like clothes, so that's nice. If her showing up naked had any bright side, it would be that it helped ensure that I knew she was a girl. She's currently wearing a jacket too big for her by several sizes.

Io's given the servant the nickname of 'Sakura', which is cute but may cause problems if we get people with that name in our party in the future. It's…She's? Got a middling stat line, a spate of weaknesses, and the skill 'Marin Karin' innately, which the laptop tells me is a charm skill and it is _so weird_. Though I have to say, the existence of a status effect spell in our midst means we can now test it out and see what's the best way for us to counter it in the event that we do not have access to Amrita.

By the way, everyone has Amrita. And Dia. Being able to pop heals and nullify status effects such as 'missing limbs' is just too overpowered.

Anyways, we're…going to not use Sakura, I imagine, because she has piss poor offense. Like fuck Koharu is more useful than she is.

_Koharu's more useful than you, too._

Is not: I can facetank, she can't. Well, I can probably get her to facetank but that would be unethical.

Anyways.

Yuzu's next. She spends 400 mana on one demon and gets a 'Moh Shuvuu'. A…purple-haired girl of Sakura's 12-year-old size with the ability to fly via her wing-like hairs. It's magically inclined like she is. What's notable about her is that her flying is much, _much _faster than the Sylphs or the Pixies. Otherwise, she comes with ice skills, which our lineup rather needs.

Lastly, Otome spends 300 macca and summons…Angel. Like…a literal Angel? It's practically as powerful as the Shiisa and Flaemis. It's a 'Divine', 'Aspect', and 'Momentum'. I suppose this means that an 'Aspect' is definitively stronger than an 'Entity'.

As a bonus, because I run this town (apparently) I spend 600 macca to summon another Slyph with the help of the other two Sylphs. This is just me playing around with trying to get more quality, because as of right now I do not know what causes a demon to be summoned better, or just for a better demon to be summoned.

Anyways, it's another Slyph. Short bobby black hair, with a bit of airy, 'I don't really care' attitude about her. Strangely enough, despite spending 600 macca, her baseline stats are _awful_…in exchange for some...uh, skills.

She has 'Growth+1' as her passive, which gives her an extra point on level up. I wonder if this is retroactive. As a passive, she has 'Organizer', Which drops spell cost by 10% for 'the party'. I wonder if that means the entire party or else just a deployed squad. Attack-wise, she has Agilao, which seems to be the upgrade to straight Agi (fire damage), and a skill called 'Carpeting Rounds', which is a physical skill that casts from mana and 'deals miniscule damage to one target 1 to 10 times', which sounds…completely and utterly bullshit for two different possible reasons, depending on how much it hits.

If I didn't know better I'd think that I pulled Reimu.

…

Anyways, with our roster now better buffed, we arrive at the location of Akihiko's house.

"[Here goes.]" He says after a deep breath. The away party is: Akihiko, Kazuya, Io, and Yuzu. All the demons are deployed except for Sakura. Akihiko's family lives in a high-rise, I guess? It's a twenty-story building that looks a bit rundown…well, rundown not counting the chunks cut out of it by some demon. "{The place might collapse, so let's hurry.}"

…

_Twenty minutes pass._

The rest of us sit twiddling our thumbs. The fact that I have spare macca means I can shrink the bus to make it a bit easier to hide, and we use the garage entrance of the building to help hide the vehicle. I basically learned how to braid a girls' hair from Otome for 20 minutes, which is nice.

Also, since we have twenty minutes, I decide (with Otome's agreement translated through Atsuro) to test how Marin Karin works.

So…the big issue here is that we don't know whether if party-to-party charm works the same way as party-to-enemy. That said, it seems like charm works between the caster and the target, with the caster being able to 'give' the charm's master effect to a different person. When Sakura charmed Otome, she basically went supersquishymom on Sakura, and then Sakura transferred control over to me, and then Otome went supersquishymom on me. Charm seems to last a total of one minute, and while Charmed the target will do anything that (the target feels) will not result in their harm.

I think. We honestly didn't push the envelope as far as we should.

The charm effect can be resisted, and after I told Otome to try and resist it she pretty much is never affected by it, so I assume there's a disparity between magic and resistance. This, of course, implies that Marin Karin, at least while Sakura is using it, is _fucking useless _due to her low magic score(?). When Otome did not expect it, though, she was able to be charmed despite trying to resist it.

_Bigger mechanical blurb at the end._

We might have some use for it, but given that we have to deploy Sakura to use it it might be extremely niche. I think we used to have a program that lets us learn from our demons, but for some reason it's gone now. Wonder why?

…It's a little bit worrying to have our ability to fight demons appear and disappear at a whim, not gonna lie.

…

Anyways, the twenty minutes pass and Akihiko's party comes back…with Yuzu's arm covered in blood and teary-eyed. Looks like they got hit by something.

"So…no go?" Akihiko shakes his head. "What happened up there?"

"We met a dog. Demon dog." He says. "But the house is empty. There is some good things in there, so we can get some of the things." He scratches his head. "But there are probably more demons." He stares at the building again. "I'm worried."

I think I see the structure wobbling, maybe. "Well, if there are no people there, then we can leave it alone." I don't want to go in there either. "We can always get stuff in other places."

Everyone agrees, and we pull out.

Next is…Atsuro's house, which is somewhat close by.

_The drive takes the better part of an hour._

Calling it a 'drive' is very generous. As we move…further? From the crater the road conditions ger worse, with more wrecked concrete, torn asphalt, destroyed cars, and the occasional half-eaten body. In order to make path for the Bus, we basically needed more demons specifically for grunt work—three Ogres, in fact. The linear distance between the two residences isn't even that far…it's like ten blocks, tops. Still, there's no house to be found. Whatever Atsuro's house used to be, it's now a mountain of rubble.

"{Well, it's not like I expected anything else.}" Atsuro sighs. "[Gimme a second.]" He hops off the bus. To support, we send the Slyphs out to establish a recon line around, just in case.

As Atsuro looks around, one of the Sylphs give me an alert that she sighted something. Considering the state of the surroundings, if she saw something, then it had to be big enough to be visible from a respectable distance. If it's that big, then we need to wrap it up and hunker down before things get dicey.

…I should take the time to find out how best to reinforce sections of the base so we can have something like a tornado bunker. Get everything else trashed but survive is probably the best option among all terrible ones.

"Sanada, tell him to hurry it up." I say. "Something's out there."

"Ok." Akihiko relays my message to Atsuro then relay back the answer. "He says he'll be done soon."

Atsuro looks like he's fumbling through some weeds near the house. He finds what he's looking for, I imagine, as he moves closer to the rubble base of his house(?) and fumbles with something else. This time it goes much faster, and he quickly extracts a small thing and then sprints back into the bus.

"[Otakuro, what is that?]" Yuzu asks him. "[A piece of paper?]"

"{It's our family's contingency plan.}" Atsuro says with a sly grin. "{Leave it to the old man to figure out something like this.}" He unfurls the paper and reads it quickly. "{They were evacuated by some organization and it looks like they're headed to Kyoto.}" He says. "We'll be able to find them in Kyoto." He says then repeats in English for my benefit. I nod, though I caught 'Kyoto' and could take a hint.

More importantly though.

Ambling through the street and rubble in front of us is…a mass of black, sticky shadows. Like, it looks like liquified darkness. As it moves…in order to move, hands, multitudes of hands, extend from the body, grab each other, turn into a bigger hand…of hands…and it crawls like a massive demented baby. A massive demented headless baby. Like what the fuck. The hands are so sticky-looking when they peel from the ground and they drag behind the body before being absorbed back in and it's so fucking ew.

"{I don't want to know what this thing is.}" Akihiko mutters. "[So creepy.]" You got that right.

It ambles forward, a very strange mix of grace and bumbling, and then stops, then

ok yeah that's real fucking creepy

It grabs a slab of concrete and smushes it into where its face would be (if it were an animal) and the shadows ooze into that concrete, cutting out parts to make eyes and a misshapen mouth. The whole thing is angled and wrong and oh my god it's looking in this direction

_The thing has turned, and its permanently tilted-looking head tilts even further as it contemplates the Bus front of it._

Why does it have seven hundred arms now like that is not ok

Ok, calm down. The phone registers this thing as the 'Unrelenting', which seems to be a mass of combined willpower of the dead. What's really problematic is that this thing is literally impervious to damage. Like, it has 'null' registered in its resistance chart on all aspects except Light, Dark, and Curse. The only thing we have that can Curse is, arguably, Sakura. I don't want to Marin Karin this thing and turn us into a hentai movie, so that's out. The Angel can also use light (a spell called Kouha). But the biggest problem is, I don't know how tough this thing is, so if we get into a tussle and then get overpowered, there's every chance that we're not getting out alive.

I've read Full Metal Alchemist and I'm now very aware that shadows can slice shit and I'm not about to find out if that's something we have to worry about or not.

"We're backing up." I say. "Somebody check the back for me." I say and start retreating the Bus from the Unrelenting. With a name like that…yeah.

It's coming at us. It's up to nine arms now. Its newest arms do most of the locomotion while the oldest arms drag behind it like a demented tail. Ew ew ew ew ew

Fuck it. "Otome, get Angel to hit it with light skills." I say and Akihiko translates.

"[Ok, we'll give it a try.]" Otome says. She commands her angel to take off (from the loading dock) and it soars high into the air. It then fires…uh…rays of light into the unrelenting. I guess. It's so weird to both have to pay attention to this shambling monster in front of me and then have to worry about looking through the big rear-view mirrors mounted on the sides like I'm backing out of a parking spot, and weirdly the backing out is somehow a bigger and more pressing issue.

_The Angel creates javelins of light and launch them at the Unrelenting. Each one strikes its back causes the mass to shudder, but there's no other visible signs of outward damage._

That said, after a few strikes of Kouha, it seems to stop. "Otome, watch out for counterattacks." I continue to pull back and make distance. Maybe we should try to charm it now that it's distracted? I'm terrified about it doing some weird shadow rope shenanigans, though.

The Unrelenting…seems to relent, as it loses interest and ambles off somewhere else. Fuuuuuck that scared me and I don't really know why. Maybe it has like an auto-fear effect?

Either way, how many of these are there? They seem like the same kind as the…zombies, and stuff, right? So there should be…uh…plenty of them. I think. I honestly have not seen a zombie for a while, so…maybe not that common?

Hmm.

…Hmm?

_A small levitating spine floats idly through the air, going in the same direction as the Unrelenting. It passes uneventfully in front of our eyes._

…

_There is a full fifteen minutes of silence before anybody made any kind of movement._

…What…

WHAT THE HELL WAS THAT?!

It was like…I dunno, the length of my arm, tops. It had spikes, it floats, it wobbles, and it was completely not intimidating in any way, shape, or form, but that…that _thing_. Whatever the fuck. What the fuck.

It…it was soul-hurtingly terrifying. I don't understand how, and I don't understand why, but seeing that thing is like…it's like…Primal Fear, I guess? I don't…

_…_Wow, shit, I'm actually crying right now. I can hear the girls sobbing behind me, and I'm damn sure the other guys are the same as me. Jesus. I don't know what the hell that was, but it really is very much so a Primal Fear kind of thing. Crap. If that thing actually comes for us we're in trouble. None of us are able to fight it.

…We need time to get our shit together.

_It's another hour before we're all in a kind of safe mental state to continue._

"{If we see something like that again, we run.}" Atsuro says. "{I don't know what it is but I'm not going to be dealing with it.}"

It's worth noting that none of us had the mental state avaliable to scan the thing with our phones, so we still don't know what it is beyond a flying fishbone.

Ugh. Anyways…let's continue. Who's left?

…

…

Throughout the rest of the day, we cover everyone.

Backtracking through the city a little, we were able to…uh…confirm…that Yuzu and Io's parents are elsewhere. Unlike Atsuro's parents, they didn't leave behind traces of themselves to mark some kind of path forward. For better or worse, I'm assuming that they're dead until proven otherwise. I think we're all assuming they're dead until proven otherwise. Considering their faces I'm sure they're doing just that.

Kazuya…his brother is apparently weird. While the dude's not home either, it's worth noting that his house is somehow in pristine condition despite basically everything else around it being totally and utterly levelled. I think I'm correct in assuming that…Noya? Naoya? Naoya's going to be interesting if we ever lay our eyes on him.

Otome has a…what, a JPS issued living space? Or something? Neither of the two translators were confident they were telling me the right word for what I assume is an apartment. Regardless, apparently it was very close to the Diet building, which means that it's now basically a puddle of liquid and nothing can be salvaged.

With all of that…settled, I guess…we're headed to Kyoto. The biggest issue apart from instant death aside is fuel, especially for the long term. We filled up before we left and this is probably enough to get here, but having more gasoline is important, so we'll be keeping our eyes out for any gas stations that are still intact. So far no dice, but understandable…I assume some exploding were involved. We might have to siphon gas from other cars via Ogre Violence at some point.

Which reminds me: we need gas canisters. The caravan we started with had them, but they were spread out among the other vehicles since the Bus was already cramped for space. I feel dumb now, but that's how it goes sometimes.

Anyways…to Kyoto!

_Our Bus travels a block before being stopped by a veritable wall made of a toppled building._

…eventually!

I mean, fucking hell I'm happy we're not getting our faces eaten on a daily basis but good god the driving is going to drive me nuts.

.

.

.

{ === + === }

Author Notes:

Man I've been sitting on this one for a long time.

Special Effect Mechanics.

[Basic]

When a caster's magic and the target's resistance are the same, a 'low' rank spell has a 25% landing chance, while a 'medium' like Marin Karin has 50% chance. Differences to magic and resistance would change success rate depending on which side is higher. Upon success, the length of the effect is dependent on the caster's magic score.

[Modifiers]

Bonus to success rate: familiarity with the status effect. Taking the target unawares.

Malus to success rate: awareness of the caster and the attempt.

[Length]

The effect's length is further modified by excess mana thrown into the spell. Likewise, the effect's length can be reduced by the defender spending its own mana to counteract, even if the counter action fails.

[Buffs/debuffs]

Buff/debuffs work much the same way. The effect of the bonus changes depending on the strength of the caster and the target, so the better the caster the stronger the effect. The length of the effect is also dependent on the caster's mana spent.

This does mean that if Io ever learns Heat Riser she can buff someone who's relatively bad at magic (Akihiko) and turn him into a murdertank for like thirty minutes.

One-shot-buffs (i.e. Concentrate) works similarly, except everything that's spent goes into the scale of the bonus. Io can turn Akihiko into one punch man for the duration of…uh, a single punch.

Demonpedia:

Soldiers of Orcus/Jambavan/Baphomet: A bipedal pig/bear/goat.

Servant of Aphrodite: A servant of the goddess of love, and represents the purity of young love.

Shiissaa: "An ancient holy beast from Okinawa, modeled after the lion. The name Shiisaa comes from the Sanskrit word for lion "Simha." This holy beast is said to protect houses from evil and grant great fortune." -SMT Liberation Day

Fun fact: Shiissaa in Devil Survivor is literally the first demon I ever saw about the SMT Series.

Legion—their size reflects the amount of magical and physical power they have absorbed. Physical power = nutrition.

Moh Shuvuu—Flying girl (who flies with her hair) with the ability to turn into a bird and drink brains, because I guess birds do that.

Note: in order to better differentiate the capabilities of flight-capable demons like Pixies (which have wings) and the 'Avian' type, anything that's considered an 'Avian' will basically be better at flying than a non-Avian (i.e. higher flight ceiling, faster speed, better agility, so on.)

Forgotten – Bodies lost to time. Basically zombies.

Uncherished – souls lost to time. Basically ghosts.

Unrelenting – wills lost to time. Has a tendency to try and clump together.

'Flying Fishbone' – An unknown entity.

Party Builds:

All-rounders: Kazuya, Otome, Koharu(ish)

Attacker (Melee): Akihiko, Atsuro

Attacker (Magic): Io, Yuzu

Damage Sponge: Ash

Party Alignment:

Lawful Good – Yuzu, Io, Koharu

Neutral Good – Otome

Lawful Neutral – Akihiko, Atsuro, Kazuya

Chaotic Neutral – Ash.

Party Demons:

Ash – Dagger, Sylph x3

Kazuya – Flaemis, Shiisa

Io – Pixie, Servant of Aphrodite

Yuzu – Moh Shuvuu

Otome – Angel

Akihiko – Ogre x3


End file.
